The Perils of Running A Marathon

About two miles into a seven mile run on Tuesday night (it was completely dark), I stepped into a pothole and twisted up my foot pretty bad. It didn't hurt that much at the time so I decided to finish up the remaining 4 1/2 miles of my run. It got pretty swollen afterward and really hurt the next day, forcing me to take a few days off. I don't think it's too serious, however, since it didn't really affect my ankle.

The following story about this year's winner of the Chicago Marathon also reminded me that it could be a lot worse (this is from the AP wire):

(10-24) 11:53 PDT CHICAGO, (AP) --

Chicago Marathon winner Robert Cheruiyot left the hospital on Tuesday after spending two nights there with a mild concussion he sustained when he slipped at the finish line.

The 28-year-old had sprinted away from fellow Kenyan Daniel Njenga during the final stretch of Sunday's race when he slipped backward and banged his head, causing internal and external bleeding. His momentum carried him across the line, making him the winner in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 35 seconds.

Cheruiyot, this year's Boston Marathon champion, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

He had no recollection of what had happened immediately afterward and asked his coach if he had won. But his agent, Federico Rosa, said his client's memory is intact. There were decals with the marathon's logo at the finish line, but Rosa did not blame them for the fall. He suggested after the race and during a news conference on Monday that wet conditions, shoes and even just a lack of balance caused Cheruiyot to slip.

The weird thing was that he fell backward while crossing the finish line. I figure this is unlikely to happen to me since there is almost no chance of me running that fast (there may, however, be some danger of getting kicked in the head by a showgirl or failing to get around a wall of Elvi; this is Las Vegas, after all!). Here is a video:



I should be back in action shortly (luckily, my long run this weekend is only scheduled to be 12 miles, so it should not cost me too much to either reduce it or cut it out).

Training Woes

Last week, we spent a few days in Big Sur, that part of the coast along Highway 1 between Carmel and Hearst Castle (San Simeon). I had never been to Big Sur before, and it is exactly what you think of when you picture the Northern California coast, rugged and beautiful. We camped for a couple of days at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, which is right on the Big Sur River. We also stayed for a couple of days at Deetjen's Big Sur Inn, a rustic inn with cabin-like rooms (complete with working wood-burning stoves!).

I decided to do my long run (only 10 miles) on the day of our Anniversary, Sunday, October 8. I prefer running the long runs on Saturday to get them out of the way, but we got down to Big Sur late in the afternoon on Saturday and I was only able to get in a short, four mile run. Note: try to avoid running through campground areas in the early evening; the smoke from the campfires can really slow you down.

On the recommendation of one of the park rangers at our campground, we decided to run the "Old Coast Road," which was apparently the original road from Big Sur to Monterey before the construction of Highway 1. "Road" is something of a euphemism in describing the Old Coast Road as it is actually nothing more than a loose dirt trail which, in many places is barely big enough for one car. As shown in the pictures here, the terrain is both remote and hilly. The trail starts just across the street from Andrew Molera Park and travels over to the Bixby Bridge.

Unfortunately, the ranger said the Coast Road was about 6 miles, so I decided to run five miles out and back for a total of 10 miles. This was by far the toughest run I have ever been on: I was forced to walk large (uphill) portions of it, and was actually praying that Jess (who was running a much shorter distance) would start wondering where I was and save me with the car. The first 2 1/2 miles were entirely uphill, rising nearly 1,000 feet. This was followed by an abrupt, steep drop of 900 feet over the next two miles, coupled with the knowledge that I would have to return up this steep climb. This descent was followed by another climb of 500 feet over the next 3/4 of a mile (my GPS could not pick up a signal through much of the thick foliage while I was at the bottom of the valley near the Big Sur River, so I actually ran longer than 10 miles). In short, it was miserable, and took me nearly two hours to cover 10.5 miles. Yeah, the scenery was beautiful (expansive views of the ocean, and I even saw a couple of deer on the way back), but I was thinking more about survival than my surroundings. Here I am, in my official Las Vegas Marathon training gear, glad to be alive:

Oddly, there were several Port-A-Potties along the trail, and I found out that they held the Big Sur Trail Marathon on this trail the day before. To understand how difficult this trail is, take a look at the results: there were only 43 entrants, and it took the winner 3 hours, 36 minutes and 12 seconds to complete the distance. Half-marathoners did not fare much better, as it took the winner 1:37:40 to complete the distance. Yikes! We also later found out that the Coast Road is actually 10 miles (not 6, as explained by the ranger), so I could have run point to point and at least avoided the mental terror of having to run back up that steep two mile hill I had run down. Maybe next time (just kidding).

Recovery was tough, as my quads and hamstrings were burning for a couple of days. At least we were able to enjoy the fine four course tasting menu that evening at Sierra Mar Restaurant at the Post Ranch Inn. As you can see, the way the clouds rolled in it almost looked like we were on an airplane:



Here are the totals for week five:

Week Five
Miles: 17.75
Time: 2:55:38

The following Tuesday I was able to run five miles along the relatively flat marina trail in Monterey. I then squeezed in a four mile run along the Embarcadero heading toward the ballpark on Friday after work. For the second week, I chose to do my long run after running a shorter run the day before again with less than great results. On Saturday, I returned to the Iron Horse Trail for a 15-mile run, this time starting at the Pleasant Hill BART station. I could not get into a good rhythm, and had to stop a couple of times because I just was not feeling comfortable. I made it through the 15 miles, but it was a struggle the entire time. I am wondering if it might be smarter to rest the night before a long run rather than putting in a short workout (any thoughts on this appreciated!).

Week Six
Miles: 24
Time: 3:27:28

Totals
Total miles (running): 123.5
Total time (running): 18:06:38

Iron Horse Trail

It has been a couple of weeks since I have had a chance to update everyone on my training: things have been very busy at work, and I also celebrated my first wedding anniversary by spending a couple of days in Big Sur (more on that soon). I hope to be able to get current sometime this week as the marathon is less than two months away and I really need to get serious about my training.

For now, I will go back a couple of weeks to September 30 and a 13.1 mile run on the “Iron Horse Trail,” which is part of the network of trials maintained by the East Bay Regional Park District. The trail, which is paved and about 20 feet wide, runs between the cities of Concord and Dublin and follows the Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way established in 1891 and abandoned in 1977. In all, the trail runs more than 30 miles and connects 12 cities through a variety of terrain (although mostly suburban). Here are a couple of maps covering the area where I started, the middle part of the run, and where I wound up.

At about 2:30 in the afternoon, I picked up the trail near I-680 at Rudgear Road and from there the trail passes through a rural/residential area to connect with downtown Alamo and the Alamo Square shopping center. Continuing south, the trail passes through downtown Danville, passes under the I-680, and heads into San Ramon. I turned around a little after a mile past Sycamore Valley Road in San Ramon. The course primarily passes through suburban neighborhoods, although there is some nice open space, including views of Mount Diablo. I also passed by the law offices of a co-counsel on an earlier case, as well as a restaurant where I had an initial meeting with an expert in another case, although I had no idea at the time that this great trail even existed!

This is a pretty easy run, and I felt good the entire time, running the half-marathon distance in well under two hours (1:51:26). Although the trail seems flat, it actually increases in elevation by about 420 feet. This may not sound like much over a distance of 6 ½ miles, but it is markedly easier coming back with a slight down grade.

Here is the weekly summary:

Week Four
Miles: 19.35
Time: 2:45:45

Totals
Total miles (running): 81.75
Total time (running): 11:43:12

Golden Gate Bridge Run

Two weeks ago Tuesday (I hope to catch up to the current week soon!), my friend Brian sent me an e-mail asking if I wanted to join him on a "long run" that Saturday. Brian has a few marathons under his belt and is pretty good about keeping an even pace during a long race. He proposed running 15 miles since he had just recently decided to run the Seattle Marathon on November 26 and really needed to get his training going. He wanted to run from the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. I was only supposed to run 12 miles for my long run, but it sounded fun, so I agreed.

I also mentioned this long run to one of my co-workers, Christina, who has not run long distances regularly, but is faster than both of us. She clearly outpaced us during the Cable Car Chase, but I think this is only because (a) she is much younger than either of us and still has a lot of spring in her step, or (b) some of Alan Webb's (who she apparently dated in high school) speed wore off on her. For the non-runners, Alan Webb ran the mile in 3:53.43 in 2001 while he was in high school, breaking Jim Ryan's record.

I hadn't really done any training runs with other people before, and I was a little worried that I might have trouble keeping up. Luckily, it was much better than expected as the miles ticked by pretty quickly as we chatted. We started at the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, ran along the Embarcadero, past the tourists at Fisherman's Wharf, through Aquatic Park, Fort Mason, the Marina, Crissy Field, and, finally, to the Golden Gate Bridge. The variety of scenery is amazing, and we got to see a nice cross-section of San Francisco. The weather was also nice and cool although the winds really started to whip up as we approached the bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge was built in 1937, is about 1.7 miles long, and stands 220 feet above the San Francisco Bay. Traffic roars past on the left of the pedestrian lane, and there are wide gaps to the right which look right down on the Bay below. It was cloudy when we ran (the view of San Francisco was entirely lost in the fog), which minimized the number of pedestrians on the bridge. Still, the views down toward the Bay were pretty amazing, as people were out kite surfing right under the Golden Gate. At the end of the first half of the run, we stopped at the Visitor's Center on the Marin side of the bridge, and I was feeling great. Unlike in San Francisco, it was sunny and warm in Marin. We stopped for a minute, I had a Cola flavored Clif Shot, and we headed back.

My legs felt a little wobbly on the way back, and Christina and Brian were whipping up the pace. Once we got back across the Bridge, after almost 10 miles (unfortunately, my GPS device malfunctioned about 4 miles into the run, so I am not 100% sure how far we went), Christina decided she was done and we parted ways. Brian was still feeling good, and he got me to press on. I was starting to feel sore in both of my knees and my hips and, after about 12 miles, was really starting to fade. Fortunately for me, the entire run was only about 14 miles (rather than the anticipated 15) and I made my way back to the Ferry Building intact.

All in all, it was beautiful run, and it was also nice to share the pain with others. I also felt pretty good about running the length of a half marathon (13.1 miles) in less than two hours. All told, we ran 14 miles in 2:05:39. Jessica and Brian's fiancee (and Jessica's high school friend), Sarah, met us at the Ferry Building and we enjoyed a glass of wine at "Wine" (in Embarcadero Center 2) followed by a fine rack of ribs at MacArthur Park Restaurant.

Here is the recap for the week:

Week Three
Miles: 24.5
Time: 3:33:45

Totals
Total miles (running): 62.4
Total time (running): 8:57:27

I was definitely sore that evening and a little sore the next day, but recovered pretty quickly. Things are still looking good!