Fat Girl Learns To Run

January 1, 2011 - The Journey Begins

After running the Chicago Half Marathon in 2010, I felt like I was floundering with my running.  My heart just didn’t seem in it any more. Lacing up the shoes started to seem like a chore.  Between the Chicago Half Marathon and the Monster Half Marathon, I didn’t put much effort into my running and it showed as I struggled to finish the Half Marathon on Halloween.

After completing my goal to run a Half Marathon in 2010 (I actually ended up running three Half Marathons), I realized that I needed to set another running goal or else I might just quit this whole running thing.  I knew this goal had to be something that I really wanted.  After giving it much thought, I decided that I wanted to run in Boston Marathon.  Now the catch is that you need to qualify to run Boston.  Your qualifying time is determined by your age and gender.  My qualifying time is 4 hours and 15 minutes which means I need to run about a 9:42 mile.  Considering that my race time is about a 12 minute mile, I definitely need to get faster while running a longer distance.

Now that I am no longer young and foolish (okay, maybe foolish at times but definitely not young) I know that it will probably take several marathons to reach my ultimate goal.  To capture my marathon journey, I have started writing in my blog again.  Putting less pressure on myself this time around, my posts will be weekly instead of daily.  This is not saying that at times there might be more than one post during the week.

Join me as I begin my marathon journey in 2011.

Year One In Review

It was a year ago that I decided to start to write a blog about running and losing weight.  The time has come to review how I did with the goals that I set.

On the weight front, I only lost half the weight.  This was a step in the right direction but I still am not where I want to be.  On the running front, I did finish a Half Marathon.  I wish I would have run the race better but at least I finished the race running across the finish line.  I guess I accomplished about 75% of my goals.

If I didn’t set these goals last year, I would be lucky to be running 5Ks now and still not fitting into those jeans.  The thing about goals is that they give you something to strive for.  If you don’t have a destination to reach, you just go in circles or worst yet, backwards.  Just because my year has ended doesn’t mean that my goals end.  It is time to re-evaluate my previous goals and set new ones.

Let’s start with the weight goal.  My new goal is to get by body into great shape.  I want my body to be strong.  I don’t care what number is on the scale as long as I feel comfortable with my body.  This means more weight and strength training exercises.  Food is also going to play a factor with this goal.  Right now I am very conscious about what food I put in my body but I still have more slip ups than I should.  I also realized that to focus on this goal I need to minimize any other elements that could derail this goal.  Last year, I ended a relationship, I moved to a new residence and I got my son ready for college on the East Coast.  With all those life changing events going on in my life, it was difficult to focus on my goals.

Running has opened up a whole other world to me.  Besides getting better at running, I met some great people in my pace group when training for the Half Marathon.  This sport had given me so much joy and has been a great outlet to help me deal with all the changes in my life.  Just last year, I struggled to run for a minute without needing an oxygen tank.  Now I can run for over 2 hours.  I have learned that your body can do things you never thought would be possible.  You just need to keep pushing yourself a little more each day.

So what is next for me?  In a couple of weeks, I will be running in another Half Marathon and then I have a 5K in October and a 15K in November.  There might even be some other races I might run in this year.  Signing up for races gives me the motivation to keep running on a regular basis.  As for my racing goals, I am going to stretch myself even more and train for a Marathon next year.  There, I said it.  I have put the stake in the ground.  This year I am volunteering again at the Chicago Marathon and hopefully next year I will be running the race instead of volunteering.

Last August I set out to write a blog for a year since I haven’t had the best discipline starting something and finishing it.  Now that the year has ended, I have decided to continue writing my Fat Girl Learns to Run blog but now focusing on my new goals.  I tried to write every day during the last year but that is too much pressure for me so I will only write a few times a week for the next year.  So now I am taking some time off from writing in my blog because I am taking my son off to college this weekend.  Just as my son begins his new life in Boston attending college, I too will begin my new life.

In the Blood Now ---------- Day 362-365

On Saturday morning it was raining so I decided to postpone my long run until Sunday.  The rain was really just a drizzle and I wouldn’t have melted outside. I had other things I needed to get done on Saturday so that was the deciding factor in not running.   My big plans were to help my son pack up his stuff for college and shop, hopefully for the last time, for any last minute items.  I guess my focus just wasn’t on running on Saturday.

Now the thing about running on Sunday was that I needed to leave the house at 9:00 a.m. for an all day outing.  Since I would be running for at least 2 hours, I left the house after 4:00 a.m.  It was dark as usual and the street lights still weren’t working on a good part of my path.  This was really annoying for me.  It isn’t so bad if you are only running 3 miles back and forth on a short path but when you are running for 9 miles, this can get really boring.  It is just a step above being on a treadmill.  Since I need variety, I found that running around the parking lot at a bank would vary the routine.

After running for awhile, I needed a bathroom break.  I saw a McDonalds down the road so I thought I would go there but then saw that it didn’t open up until 6:00 a.m.  I decided to go back home to use the bathroom. Once back on the running path, it started to get lighter outside so I could venture into another area to run.  Again, I need to go to the bathroom but this time I went to McDonalds to use their facilities.  Since I was running longer on Sunday, I ate some food before I went running.  The problem was that I didn’t have much time between eating and running so that is why I had to go twice to the bathroom.  On race day, I eat about 2 ½ hours before the race so I only have to stop once during the race.  Running just accelerates your metabolism.

As daylight approached, people seemed to come out of the woodwork to run or walk on the path and street.  I realized that I like running in the dark and being the only fool out there.  When I saw other people, it felt they were invading my private space.  Since it was cooler weather, I had a really good run.  It was the best long run I have ever had.  I so could have run a Half Marathon that day.

Besides getting my long run in, I also signed up for 2 other races and ordered 2 running books over the weekend.  I think this running thing is really in my blood now.

Hello Darkness my old Friend ----------- Day 360-361

After having my sabotage day on Wednesday I thought my woes were over.  When I went outside to run on Thursday morning, it seemed really dark outside.  At 4:00 a.m. you expect it to be dark but not that dark.  When I walked to the main street, I realized the problem.  The street lights on the streets that I normally run on were not on.  No wonder it felt darker than normal.  Now I am even recognizing levels of darkness in world that exist this early in the morning.  Since light was cast on the sidewalk from the various store fronts, I decided to run down the same streets.  When I reached my turnaround point, I realized that it was really too dark to run safely.  I was forced to change my path to run the other way were the streets lights were on.

Normally I wouldn’t have run on Thursday mornings because I would run with the group at RAM in the evening.  The problem with this was that I wasn’t getting all my miles in for the day.  I am really trying to do better with my training leading up to the next race so I ran most of my miles in the morning.

I have also noticed that it has been getting warmer every day in the mornings.  On Monday it was actually cool.  It was such a treat running in cooler weather.  The only problem was that my stomach was acting up and I had to run back to the house to use the bathroom twice which disrupted my run.  I realized later that the stress at work has really affected my stomach.  Since I have an iron clad stomach, when my stomach is out of whack, something is different affecting it.  Again, all the mental stress affects me physically.  So here I have this opportunity to run in cool weather which I haven’t experienced for months and then work finds a way to sabotage my run.

I made sure that I left work at a normal time today so that I am well rested for tomorrow’s long run.

Sabotage --------- Day 358-359

My plan was to do my exercise in the mornings so I won’t have to worry about things coming up in the evenings to distract me from getting in a workout.  That worked well until today.  My alarm went off and I told myself “five more minutes” before I get up.  Big mistake.  The five minutes turned into an hour so exercising was out for the morning.  No problem, I will leave work on time and then do my exercise before I eat dinner.   I then get a call in the afternoon from the furniture store that was supposed to deliver my new bed and mattress.  The salesperson tells me that the mattress that I ordered has been discontinued and could I come to the store tonight and pick out a new one.  She assures me that my delivery will still be made the next day.  Making a trip to store was not in the plans for tonight.  But wait, it gets worse.

 I did leave work at a decent time and was heading home.  Since I left work at an earlier time, the train got packed with Cubs fans at Addison heading home.  This is never a good thing.  When I reached the end of the line to change to another train, the platform was packed with people waiting (mostly Cub fans) to get on my train which just has two train cars.  I waited on the platform for a bit while more people crammed on the platform and then I decided to take the bus instead of the train.  As I got to street level, I noticed this huge bus that said L Shuttle.  I really didn’t know what that was all about until the sign on the bus changed to Yellow Line.  Immediately I darted toward the bus and got on.  Apparently, the Yellow Line was having train trouble and the bus would be the alternate route.  Once I got on the bus, I saw droves of people leaving the train station and heading toward the bus.  There must have been an announcement about the train which prompted the people to go to the bus.  Once again I relied on my instincts to guide my way which allowed me to be able to sit on the bus instead of stand.

My dad picked me up at the train station as usual.  When I called him, I tried to explain that I would be arriving on a bus and not the train but that was too much information for him to process.  When I got home, I immediately jumped into my car and headed toward the store.  Once I was on the main street to get there, I saw that lanes were merging into one.  Silly me for thinking that it would only be for a short time but it was only one lane until I got to the store.  It seemed like forever until I got to the store.  Luckily, the experience in the store was pretty painless and fast.  I had to choose another mattress and I didn’t have to pay for the upgrade.  Trying one mattress after another finding just the right one reminded me of goldilocks invading the bears’ house.  I finally settled on one and left to go home.  This time I took another street and got home a lot faster than I got there.

All in all, it took three hours from the time I left work until I got home to eat.  By this time, my mind and body have had it for the day and I have nothing left except to vent about my day in my blog.  I really have good intentions but for some reason mysteries forces are always out there trying to sabotage me.  I think a good run tomorrow morning is just what I need to release the pent up frustration that is in me.

Analyze That ----------- Day 353-357

There was as threat of rain Saturday morning for the group run.  When I went outside I saw that it had rained on my car but it didn’t look like any more rain was coming in the near future.  Even though our official Half Marathon training session is over, our pace group is still meeting on Saturdays to train for the Chicago Half Marathon.  We decided to meet at 6:30 a.m. to get an early start on the day.

It wasn’t as hot on Saturday as it had been during the week but it was warm enough.  Since the Air and Water show was this weekend, we decided to run South 3 miles and then turn back to the starting point and from there run 2 miles back and forth in another direction for a total of 10 miles.  This all sounded good until I started to run.  As hard as I try, my body does not like running in the heat.  I was okay for the 3 miles out but around mile 4, I started to lose it.  My legs felt like dead weight.  It was so difficult to put one foot in front of the other.  I ended up muddling through the 6 miles but I was disappointed that I didn’t make the 10 miles. Talk about a bad run. I didn’t know why I felt this bad.  My body didn’t have any aches and pains.  My stomach was not upset.  I had something to eat before the run and was drinking water along the path.  I even brought my own water bottle with me.

Having this analytical mind, I had to figure out what was wrong with this run.  As I thought about it some more I realized what my problem was – WORK.  I had such a mentally exhausting week at work that by the time Friday night arrived, I was totally spent.  It was one of those nights where I wanted to eat an entire stuffed pizza and drink a bottle of wine while indulging in one of those mindless reality TV shows like the Bachelor Pad. Of course I didn’t do that.  Again, running saved me from myself.

They say running is very mental and I totally get that now.  I remember another time that I had a really bad run on Saturday and it had nothing to do with me physically but my head just wasn’t in the run.  I just hope last week was one of those abnormal weeks at work and things will be calmer this week.  I have really been trying to keep to the training schedule this time and I really hate when work sabotages my efforts.  Hopefully next Saturday will yield a better run for me.

 

Running in the Dark ----------- Day 351-352

I enjoy reading books on organizing.  I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient.  If I find at least one organization tip that I can incorporate in my life, I feel that the book I read was worthwhile.  Since I want to do better in my next race, I realized that I need to get my runs in during the week along with my cross training.  My problem is that I am usually exhausted after work and have no energy to even think about exercise. 

Since I am a morning person, I decided to do some workouts from tapes/DVDs in the morning before I went to work.  The basement that I am living in has a linoleum floor so working out works really well on that surface.  The only downside to exercising in early in the morning is that I get to work about ½ hour later.  That really isn’t that bad since I seem to working later also.  The other mental benefit of my early morning exercise is that when I get home, I don’t have any guilt about not working out since I have already done it.

Now that the cross training part seemed to work out well, it was time to think about the running part during the week.  Since it was going to be so hot this week, I decided to try to run in the mornings when it would be the coolest weather.  The drawback about running in the morning is that it is very dark and not many people are around.  To prepare for my morning runs, I visited RAM over the weekend and got a belt that holds a water bottle and a reflective harness to wear over my shirt.  For some reason I am always finding new running stuff that I need.

My first running adventure was on Monday.  Since my parents live right by a busy street in town, I was planning to run down the street.  Not actually on the street but on the sidewalk.  You have to run by a busy street because you need light to see where you are running and you don’t want to be running alone in a secluded area.  The scenery isn’t as great as by the lake but it works.  Also, I realized that I don’t need to wear my hat in the morning since no one will see how horrible my hair looks in the dark.

After about a week of this morning exercise routine, I think that I will stick to it.

Race Debrief ----------- Day 346-350

Now that it’s been a week after the Half Marathon and the soreness of the race as worn off, I can now debrief about the race.  I remember when I first started running, one of the group leaders said that after you do your first marathon, after crossing the finish line, you have one of two thoughts.  The first thought would be “When’s the next race” and the second thought would be “I did this once and I am never doing this again.”  I didn’t realize the trueness of that statement until I crossed the finish line last Sunday.  As soon as I was handed a cool bottle of water, I immediately thought to myself, “I didn’t do as well as I wanted in this race so I am glad that I have a chance to redeem myself in the Chicago Half Marathon in September.” 

For me, running has become addictive.  I always want to challenge myself further.  There is this great sense of accomplishment when you push your body to limits it has never experienced before.  There were a lot of things that I did right in the race and other things that I need to improve.  If I am honest with myself, I didn’t do everything possible to get prepared for the race.  I didn’t put in all the required mileage during the week and my cross training was basically nonexistent.  All the things that I didn’t do were made very evident on race day.  I would also not recommend changing your personal relationships and moving while you are training for a race.

Last Saturday our running group met on Saturday for a run since most of us are running the Chicago Half.  My leg was not 100% so I only ran 8 miles instead of the scheduled 10 miles.  I just wish we would have weather that was not so warm.  Bring back those cool fall days.  Running in a group makes it much more pleasant to do your long runs.  Besides the marathon runners, I think our pace group was the only one that was basically still intact and ran.

I basically joined the CARA program so I would learn to run at a certain pace so I could finish the race.  What I didn’t know would happen is that I would have the good fortune to be part of a group of runners who I totally enjoy to run with and to hang out with after running.  Some things are just priceless.

 And by the way, I found out that about 8,000 runners never finished the race.  At least I crossed the finish line and didn’t have to have medical attention afterwards. For the next race, I am taking the day after the race off and getting a massage.  My body definitely needs a day to really recover from the race.

Race Day (August 1, 2010) ----------- Day 342-345

Last Sunday was the day of the big race.  My biggest fear was waking up late for the race so I set two alarm clocks to make sure that I would be up on time.  I got up about 4 a.m. and had something to eat.  My pre-race food was a mini wheat bagel with almond butter, salt and flax seeds, a banana and a glass of water.  I just read the other night that the days before the race it was a good idea to add some salt to your food.  Luckily I have been eating tomatoes with a sprinkling of salt for dinner the past week.  Sometimes I do the right things by sheer luck.

After eating my snack, I took a quick shower and put on my race gear.  Since I had laid out all my running stuff the night before, I didn’t have to do much thinking in the morning.  I had bought a new running hat at the Expo that I was so tempted to wear but then I remembered that you should not be trying anything new on race day so I wore my old hat.  The part that took me the longest was putting on the race bib. I had to put on my race belt first and then adjust my bib over the belt.  Once I was dressed, my dad drove me downtown to the race around 4:45 a.m.

It was an interesting site seeing all these people heading toward the race area in Grant Park.  Our plan was that our running group would meet at the CARA gear check tent around 5:45 a.m.  Soon our group was all gathered by the tent as most of us expressed our anxiety about running the race.  Before we headed to our Coral (#25), we took our last bathroom break.  The start of the race was 6:30 a.m.

Once at the Coral, the race became very real.  I was so glad that I was running the race with our group which consisted of Karen, Megan, Ellind, Megan and me. There was a wave start to the race which meant that the first coral would leave and then about a minute later the next coral would leave and so on.  By the time it was our turn, it was about 7:00 a.m.  Once we started running there was no turning back.

Since this Half Marathon was part of the Rock ‘n’ Roll series of races, there were bands scheduled every mile or so.  As we began our race we were greeted by a band singing Jessie’s Girl.  Megan’s dad was at the race and we saw him just after we started racing perched on the side of the road taking our picture.  The first part of race took us through the streets of downtown Chicago.  Maneuvering around the other racers was not something that we practiced so that was a challenge.  Since it was warm in the morning we made sure to grab some water at each of the aid stations.  After about mile 3 our group wanted to stop for a bathroom break.  We stopped at one port-a-john and were told that there were more down a few blocks.  When we got there, there was another line so we ended up using the bathroom at Starbuck’s across the street.  It was nice to go on a real toilet.  Thanks Starbucks!

As we were running toward the Art Institute, we saw Megan’s dad again on the stairs of a CTA station taking our picture.  It was like a game – Where is Megan’s dad now?  As a feature of the race you could sign up to track a runner so you would always know where they are.  As we were heading down Michigan Avenue, I was overheating so I had to slow down and my group got ahead of me.  During this time, I saw my friend Christine on the side of road cheering me on. It was great to have some moral support along the way especially since I was not running with the group anymore.

As part of the race route, we went through the bowels of McCormick place.  I ran this same way on Thursday night and hate this part of the race.  I don’t like running through something that looks like an alley and is dark.  I was glad to see daylight again.

At about mile 10, my right leg was cramping which forced me to walk/run the rest of the race.  This is not how I wanted to finish the race but I had no choice.  Also, I was starting to chafe on the inner thigh of my left thigh.  These things never happened to me running before so I guess your body starts to break down after mile 10.  Since my walking forced me to slow down, it was really difficult to run when so many people were walking on the path.  It also didn’t help that the path in the last miles was very narrow.

Along the last miles, one of the stops gave you a wet sponge to wipe yourself.  I really enjoyed that since I was soaked with sweat.  Soon I was at the Shedd Aquarium which meant that the race was almost over.  As I saw finish line, it took the last of my energy to run the last .1 miles to the end but I crossed the line running with my arms raised in my victory pose.  As soon as the runners crossed the finish line, we were handed a cold bottle of water.  Before going out of the finish area, each runner got their picture taking.  By the time I got to the picture area, I had finished my bottle because I was so thirsty.  I had hoped to finish with my group but that was not in the cards today.  Also, in the runner’s area we got our medal for finishing.

After the race, I met up with my friend and headed to the gear tent to pick up my stuff.  I ran into one of the Megans at the tent.  It was good to see at least someone from the group.  Once I had my stuff we went over to a hotel on Michigan Avenue and used their bathroom to change into dry clothes.  We then headed home and met later at a beer garden to celebrate.  My body was spent after the race and so all I could do was just sit around and do nothing.

That about wraps up race day.  I found out that my time for the race was about 2:53.  I will also have to debrief about the race tomorrow.

 

 

 

The Night Before ---------- Day 339-341

Tonight is the eve of the race.  This afternoon, our 4 person running group met at the Expo to pick up our packets and to coordinate our meeting place for the race.  I am so glad that I am not running this race alone.  I don’t think I could do it mentally without the support of other runners.  At the Expo, there was a video letting you see the running course.  All I can say is that 13.1 miles is damn far.  Not until you actually see the course do you realize this.  I was getting tired just looking at the course.  The whole race thing still seems so surreal for me.  It hasn’t really hit me that I am running that far tomorrow.  Tonight I am nervous and excited about the race.  At least I know that it won’t be raining tomorrow and not that humid.  I wish it was cooler but then again what can you expect in August in Chicago.

My last run was actually the Terrapin 5K race on Thursday.  I had my Garmin on to track my pace.  All was going well until the course ran through the bowels of McCormick Place.  No satellite signal during that part of the race.  My watch stopped and of course I couldn’t read the message without my glasses so the watch was really useless in this race.  I also realized that if my watch isn’t right enough on my wrist, it is really annoying and I really can’t fix it without stopping.  When I watched the video of the course today, we run through the same dead zone at McCormick that I ran on Thursday.  I decided not to wear my Garmin for the race.  Another member of our group has the same watch so she is going to watch our pace.

On Friday, the results of the race where posted and I was curious to find out how I did.  I gave a little scream at work when I realized that I was on pace for the race.  I felt really good about this because my body was able to realize what pace it was supposed to run at without the aid of a watch.  Another thing that I realized about the race on Thursday is that I don’t have much energy after work so that is not the best time for me to run a race.  The morning is much better.

Now I am going to pack up my stuff for the race tomorrow and watch some TV to unwind.  In the morning my dad is driving me to the race.  We are going to leave about 4:45 a.m.  I don’t know how close he can drop me off by the race with the street closures so I am leaving extra time to walk to the race area.  I hope all goes well tomorrow.  The one thing I know is that I am going to cross that finish line one way or another and get that damn medal.