Oh, yeah! The Marathon and the Website

I am terrible at this. Sorry.

I really wanted to keep up writing about training for the Quad Cities Marathon, but failed. 

On September 26th I ran the marathon in 5:55.  It was hard, but I’m proud to have done it.  Currently I plan to run the Illinois Marathon on April 30 in Champaign Illinois.  My goal is to run it in less than 5 hours.

I have some other projects in the pipeline and I hope to write about those as well.

Half Of A Marathon Is Still A Long Way

I ran 13.1 miles for my weekly long run yesterday.  It was pain.  My wife, Karen, was waiting for me at the corner of our street holding our son watching, wondering if she needed to get in the van and drive to find my body.  My mother-in-law was visiting, and together they held-up ends of a ribbon spanning six feet or so for me to break through upon finishing.

This was, by far, the most dramatic finish to a run I’ve had yet.

This was also the most bechafed run in my life.  It was muggy and foggy, and everything was rubbing against everything else.  Marathon training, it turns out, is not only about making your body strong enough, but also your mind.  I think it is working.

I Am One Hot Tamale!

It is extremely convenient to be able to check my bank balance any time I like from anywhere.  It is one of the great improvements to cushy middle American life in the past decade.  That brings up the frivolity of the following compliant.  Americans are bizarrely rich, we live better than any humans in the history of the world.  It helps us to be reminded of this when we start in on pointless rants as the following is sure to become.  This will end with a further critique of the complaint.

I would like to be able, using a simple password, to access my online banking account from anywhere.  I can’t.  The bank requires a complex password using upper-case, lower-case, number, and special characters.  That means there are around 80 characters to choose from, and an identity thief would have a very hard time getting a password just correct.  But it also makes me want to write everything down, and stick it in my wallet; that would be a really bad idea.

Several times now I have tried to access our information online from work, over lunch of course, and have not known the answers to the security questions my wife set-up before we were married.  Not knowing the security questions and attempting it from a different computer is enough evidence of a security threat, and the account is locked out.  From any computer.

Today I had my wife attempt to reset the password, first using the web interface then she called the 800 number.  Nobody could answer today because they have the fifth off in observance of the fourth.  Mondays are my day off, and I need to get some stuff done using the on-line banking system.  We have a mortgage to pay, utilities, a car payment.  These things don’t all pay themselves.

Now that rant is passed.  I am sorry I am so rich and that I obsess over how much wealth I have day-to-day.  We need to learn how to write a check and mail it or drop it off to pay our bills, and not rely on technology which only makes it infinitely easier and extremely frustrating to do

Park 2 Park: 5 Miles of Shame

Getting to “day of” registration for a road race exactly when they open does not mean you will get a t-shirt.  I probably should have registered a week ago, but I didn’t plan that far ahead.   I already have enough t-shirts.

I have run 5 miles several times in the past weeks, and several more times I have run much further.  I was hoping to topple my previous 5 mile time by at least five minutes.  I figured with the adrenaline and people around me to set a better pace, I would run faster.

Walking around Miller Park I saw many people I knew I had no chance of beating, or even seeing them finish.  But I also saw people, many people, I was certain to best.  Large people with basketball shorts (like the ones I was wearing).  People who looked like they had not trained much (as I certainly appeared).

During mile four it was the backs of these people I saw as I shuffled forward exhausted through Fairview Park.  I ran 5 miles in 59 minutes, 3 minutes slower than I ran on Thursday.  I am very disappointed in my performance.

This tells me I need to step-up my training efforts, or I will be crawling across the finish line at the Marathon six hours after starting.

It’s a Dangerous Thing, Dreaming

This summer my church is talking about pursuing dreams and it has set off some interesting activities.  I started training for a Marathon.  I’ve also started writing here again in an attempt to sharpen my skill as a writer; down the road I would like to write essays and fiction.

Other members have laid out dreams of starting a business, and are working on starting businesses.  Eventually they will have to put up some capital, quit their jobs, and take some real risks.  If that doesn’t happen, then I suppose this dreaming thing was nothing more than a thought exercise.

At least it was that.  Some church activities fail in that as well.

If the risks they take are true risks, some will likely fail.  These are the ends dreaming brings.  Action forces a choice and choices bring results, and the result of taking risks is sometimes failure and loss of what was risked.  We cannot hold too dearly to what we have, and we should not expect returns on what has not been invested.

5 Mile Race And A Change In Plans

Up until two hours ago the plan was to run seven miles tomorrow morning as park of ongoing marathon training.  However, the Park 2 Park race is happening, and the lure of running a five mile race is too much.

Monday morning will have to be good enough for a long run of seven miles.  Call the “Park 2 Park” a cross training day.

Five Mile Fun Run

Thursday morning I ran five miles in 56 minutes.  It might sound silly, but that is an improvement for me.  I am still doggedly chasing the 10 minute mile pace, and for the first two miles I was able to hit it.  This Sunday the long run is 7 miles and it shouldn’t be so hard because I have run more several times.

While running I think a lot about the Marathon.  Maybe it could be called visualization, it probably isn’t.  I think about how nice water stations will be, and wonder what I will physically be able to after the race.  I have a vague image of the course map in my mind, and I wonder where I would be on it if I were running the race at that moment.

This morning I ran 3 miles in 32 minutes.  An improvement for sure.  And my weight is 235.5. An improvement for sure.

Tomorrow is a rest day, and I have the day off work.  My in-laws are visiting, so we will probably cook out several times this weekend.  Sunday morning I have a 7 mile long run, I will be at White Oak Park in Bloomington in order to get my mile splits.

Leaving Estes

This morning we will depart Estes Park, and join a friend in Fort Collins for lunch.

Overall this has been a good trip.  I probably over did things physically; between running and hiking I racked up around 20 miles up here.  Hiking while doing training runs was probably not the best idea I ever had, but I am stronger for it.

Staying in a hotel room with an eight month old has its challenges too.  He woke up every three hours the first couple of nights.  When he finally slept normally we all over-slept because we set no alarm clock.

Sunday morning I’m doing a 10 mile run somewhere in Nebraska most likely.

Five Miles at Eight Thousand Feet

Today I did a 5 mile run, I feel good about it.  The route was from Dorsey Pond at the YMCA of the Rockies down to the Shell station on state road 66 and back.  I must emphasize down to the Shell station and back up to the YMCA.  The up-hill leg killed me.  My calves are tight and no amount of stretching seems to help; nor does Ibuprofen or Icy-Hot.

Tomorrow I will run the three mile course again.  ”Again” is a funny word for it really, because today I found the place I was supposed to run to yesterday.

Sunday I will run 10 miles.  This will not be at altitude, but I will be on the road.  I am not even sure where we will stay for Saturday night, so I have no idea where to even look to run.  One idea is for Karen to drive the van 10 miles down the road and I will just catch-up.

We’ll see how this goes.

Week Five: Fun in the Mountains

This morning I did the first weekday run of week five.  Karen, Hamilton and I are in Estes Park Colorado for the week and I am still training for a Marathon even if we’re on vacation.

I did a fair bit of hiking around yesterday.  A fair bit if you consider it was my second day here (within 24 hours of arrival).  I did Bible Point and Sprague Lake, both with Hamilton on my back.

Today I ran three miles; one and a half miles down the hill and back-up.  It felt better than I thought it would.  I think I have a boogie man idea of what the altitude change does to a body which probably stems from reading “Into Thin Air” once too many times.  I am only at 7,500 feet, but let that effect grow in my mind.

I will be running from the YMCA grounds down state road 66 to the shell station and back, if anybody cares to join me.