My Marathon Time

I realized from some of the comments you left on our last blog entry that many of you are probably confused as to how long it took me to run the marathon (I blame you, Saul, although I thought your comment was hilarious!). I purposefully neglected to write down my time because I was waiting for the official count. And while that hasn't come out yet, the marathon's website has posted the unofficial times. I think that the unofficial time will do just fine for now.

So, here are the results:

Overall, I placed 1,264 out of 2,348 marathoners. Out of my age group, I placed 175 out of 249. My 10k time was 51:38 (average of 8:21minutes per mile), my half marathon time was 1:49:41 (average of 8:22 minutes per mile), my 20 mile time was 2:59:23 (average of 8:59 minutes per mile), and my final time was 4:12:47 (average of 9:39 minutes per mile).

My only real goal was to finish the race, and I did that, so I feel just fine about the time. As you can tell by the numbers, our pace pretty much took a nose-dive during the last 5 or so miles, and we were okay with that. By that point, we weren't so concerned with setting any records. : )

An Official Marathoner

After two and half months of intense training, I did it! I ran a full marathon; all 26.2 miles of grueling fun. : )

This past Saturday morning at 4:30am, my brother-in-law Adam and I crawled out of bed (no, we didn't stay up all night in anticipation of the exciting run) and headed to downtown DC to run the National Marathon. It was the perfect day for the run. The race started at 7am, just as the sun was cresting the horizon. The sky was perfectly clear and the air was cool; it stayed in the fifties until around 10:30. We had our ipods; we were ready to dance.

(Our fabulous support crew. They had quite a wild day touring DC while we were running and then going home to clean ourselves up, but I'll tell you more about that in another entry.)

The National Marathon is a great course. It starts out east of the Capitol building a few miles and continues past the Washington Monument and partway to the Lincoln Memorial before it makes a giant loop north. The first 13 miles finish at the starting line (the RFK Stadium). The faint of heart stop there, but those of masochists who feel we need a real challenge, we keep going. Out of the hoard of runners we began with, only about 1 in every 4 or 5 continue to do the full. When most of the runners drop off, it all of a sudden gets really quiet, and that's when we knew the real race had begun. The second half of the course repeats most of the beginning length past the Capitol and along the Mall, but then turns south and makes a huge loop around the waterfront and along the Anacostia river walk trail, finishing by crossing the bridge back to the RFK Stadium.

My one goal for the race was to finish, because as anyone who's ran a marathon knows, that's all that matters! So Adam and I started off slow for the first 3 or so miles just conserving energy, keeping our heart rates low, and chipping away at the mileage. This was my favorite part of the race because we were surrounded by thousands of people and it felt more like we were walking than running. We chatted and took in the sites as we went; it was very relaxing. When we turned to start the northernly route, Adam and I turned up the pace and cruised until we hit the halfway mark. At this point, I was feeling really strong and wanted to ratchet up the pace even higher, but the thought of 13 more miles caused me to moderate my eagerness.

(Our adoring fans capturing this memorable moment -- downing some fluids at mile 17. I tried to give Sarena a hug here, but she wasn't as eager to embrace as I was. I got Nate, though!)

(And thus we parted for another 9.2 miles.)

Heather, my sister Sarena, their kids McKenzie, Trevor, Jared, and Karinn, and my other brother-in-law Nate were all waiting for us at around mile 17 to cheer us on! Heather wanted to paint in big letters on her pregnant belly "That's my daddy!", but decided against it at the last minute. It was great to see them. Especially since I had to shed my sweat-soaked shirt to prevent skin chaffing. I definitely recommend very tight, dry fit tops for anyone who is considering running a marathon. Darn my overly-effective Woodruff sweat glands!

It was really nice to have Adam running with me the whole time, but I was especially grateful he was there the last 6 miles or so. That's when we went into survival mode. Surprisingly, I actually found that part of the run very educational: I discovered every little muscle on my body that is used for running because THEY ALL HURT! Yup, and that included random muscles in my neck, lower back, shoulders ... pretty much every major region of the body. My ears felt okay, though.

But by and by, as the scriptures say, we finished. As we approached the finish line, I had a strange urge to jump up in the air, do a cheesy kick with both of my legs going to one side, and put thrust both my arms skyward with my hands doing a number one sign. Well, upon doing this ill-conceived jump, both of my calves cramped in midair and I nearly crash landed. But after some hobbling and skipping, I shook it off like I meant to do that all along and crossed the finish line. I'm pretty sure everyone bought it.

(This is right after my jump celebration as I try to remain on my feet.)

Recovery didn't go so well for me. And that is where I learned my biggest take-home lesson. After a marathon, there's no blood flowing to your digestive system - - it's all been siphoned off to your lungs, heart, and legs. Our bodies are smart like that and send blood to the area of the body where it's most needed automatically. I discovered this when I ate some food after the run. I didn't eat a lot, only a few items, but it was enough to cause an upset stomach for the rest of the day and most of the day after, too. So for those who run a marathon, remember after the race to focus mostly on rehydrating yourself. Wait a little while before you try to take any solids into your body.

All in all, I'm glad that Adam talked me into running with him. I enjoyed almost all of the race, and I am proud to have achieved something as challenging and trying as a marathon.

Heather's one entry for the Year

Hello all,
This is Heather. I know you are all used to hearing our story from the lips of Todd, but I did have a little more time this week due to the snow, so I thought I would share a little bit about my dear husband, considering it is Valentines Day and I didn't get the chance to blog about his birthday (and he said he wouldn't write about his own b-day)!
We will start with his birthday which was Jan. 21. I know I am a little late on blogging it! Well we decided to do his b-day a little more low key, so I planned a really nice dinner for him that I worked really hard on. I made him orange pork chops with a baked potato and brown sugar glazed carrots. For dessert, I made him an awesome apple crisp! The only hitch-- you know the extremely "studly and tough" run that Todd described in an earlier blog-- the 13 miles that he did without water and thus was sick for three days- yep you guessed it! He did that run on the day of my masterpiece birthday dinner for him. So I ended up eating the dinner pretty much by myself. Todd picked at it that night, but didn't fully get to enjoy it for another day, and you know a nice dinner really tastes best right after you make it. Oh well, I guess that's life. I was sad though. Here is a picture of the dinner I made for him. I took a picture so at least he could enjoy looking at it.
It doesn't look as good here as it was- Trust me it was good especially if you didn't just run 13 miles on absolutely nothing.

Alright- well despite that, we still had a great weekend and Todd even gave me a surprise Happy Anniversary card on Jan.22. He was so sweet to think of that-- the 22nd was the day that Todd and I met 5 years ago to that day! Isn't Todd so romantic-- he wrote down in the card everything I even wore that day- straight down to my shoes. I didn't even remember that.

I have to take this moment to say how much I appreciate Todd for all he does for me. He is so tolerant, loving, and considerate. He takes up all the slack with the house, cleaning, cooking, and of course blogging. I help out too, but mostly he is the one keeping us going, fed, clean, and sane. Someday I hope to return the favor. I told him in his card for Valentines day, that I really had no idea what an incredible man I was marrying when I we got married. I knew he was truly wonderful, I loved him so much and knew we were so perfect for eachother- but I just don't think I could have begun to realize how absolutely amazing he would be as a husband and I am sure as a father. I know this is probably way cheesier than any of you care to read, but I just want to say thank you to my loving husband who is the lifeline to my emotional, physical, and spiritual well being. I love you honey!

Snow-mageddon II

Another record-making snow storm hit our area for the second time this winter. Heather and I enjoy this type of weather, although there is always mass chaos at grocery and hardware stores in the days preceding the storm (one news report I heard said that lines in a local grocery store were over an hour-long a day or two before the storm hit because of people buying milk and bread, etc. We don't understand these people. Do they not have enough food in their homes to last 2-3 days?). Heather feels like it's a vacation: school was canceled on Friday as well as Monday and Tuesday of this week. She deserves this time off, so I'm thrilled for her.

Here are some pics to give you an idea of just how much snow got dumped on us. For me, this is easily the most snow I've ever seen fall in one day. My sore back confirms this. (The official numbers aren't out yet, but we easily got somewhere around two and a half feet of snow. Some areas got three feet!)

We got into a snowball fight with our neighbors while everyone was outside shoveling. The snow was so deep that you could crouch down in it and not be seen. Here is a pic of Heather and me standing up straight.

Here we are making snow angels. It was a lot of fun to run and leap into untouched, fresh snow.

Here I am after leaping into the snow. You can see the tips of my boot and head.

I got a great workout this weekend. I shoveled snow three times since late Friday night for a total of around 2 hours. It was better to break it up and do it little by little rather than wait until all the snow had fallen. I still haven't unburied (more like excavated) my car yet. I'll eventually get around to doing that.

This is our neighbor's minivan (it's the white, marshmellow-looking thing to the right of the uncovered car).

Buried ... Again

According to the news, the DC area has been hit yesterday and today by the worst snow storm ever recorded for this area. This morning, when I went outside to check it out, the snow was already over my knees. By now, the snow is closer to my waist. Crazy stuff, this snow. I'll put up some pics later on.

The Fun of Marathon Training

My brother-in-law Adam talked me into running the DC marathon this March. The training has definitely had it's up and downs. One of the lowest moments was when I ran 13 miles with no proper nutrition or hydration at all, which left me with an unsettled stomach for three days. But how studly and tough was I to do a full half-marathon like that! : ) My mom would reply, "More like how stupid!"

[This is how I felt afterward, minus the nifty medal]

My brother Kyle, who is intensely training for a full Ironman triathlon, subsequently gave me some tips on running longer distances. Since then, things have been much better and I did my 15 miler without much incident last week.

One of the tips Kyle gave me is after each long run, sit waist deep in an ice-cold bath from 15 mins or so to hyper-cool your muscles and promote faster recovery. I scream like a little girl when I get in (or so my wife tells me), but after 4 or 5 mins when my legs go numb, the rest of the bath isn't too bad. I'm still sitting on the fence as to whether this is actually helpful or whether this is a practical joke Kyle is playing on me, but I've decided to keep giving this a try in the meantime. Still, I can't wait until this marathon is over. Only 6 mores week to go. Oh boy ...