Three weeks from Saturday, I will be running 26.2 miles in the Baltimore Running Festival. It's been a long, interesting preparation, but I'm not quite there yet. That's because this Saturday's 20 miles will be my longest training run yet, and the longest I will complete before October 15th.
Believe it or not, I'm actually pretty excited to run 20 miles. Not only will it give me a pretty good idea of what I'm capable of when it comes to the real deal, but it's also my last run before taper starts! For those of you who have swam or run (I think they do that for track?) competitively, you know exactly what I'm talking about, and you know why I'm excited. For those less in the know, you usually cut back on the length and intensity of your training a couple weeks or so ahead of your championship meet or competition (in this case, my marathon). The idea is that you've already put in the training and built up a certain level of performance over the course of training, and by letting up on your training intensity, you allow your body to relax and recover.
The decreased amount of activity often leads to an increase in energy levels, which is one of the best and worst things about taper. Think of it as compressing a spring (a very powerful spring) over an extended period of time, and then releasing it the day of the big event. As you get further into your taper, your energy levels skyrocket, and it's really hard to sit still. You're accustomed to a certain level of activity, and suddenly you're slowly weening your activity level, but not your energy reserves.
Back to the marathon. I've been reading a lot about the Baltimore Running Festival and every time I do, I get more and more excited about it. As I already explained in a previous post, the turnout for this event (at least from previous runner's accounts) is amazing. It's also making me feel a lot better about the hilliness of the course. There's nothing incredibly steep, just more gradual hills, which is good, because running down steep hills is probably one of my least favorite things to do, while running up a gradual hill isn't too bad.
So that's what I have to look forward to. It's going to be a great experience (probably pretty painful, but hopefully not too much), and I'm looking forward to it. I'll do my best to provide updates each week and of course a play-by-play of my first marathon experience. Stay tuned...
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
It's September Already...??
So it's been almost a month since I updated this (oops), and I will try my hardest to be more frequent with the updates (although I can't make any promises). A lot has happened in the last month or so, most notably last week where the east coast experienced its strongest earthquake in over 100 years as well as a hurricane. Both were underwhelming.
First the earthquake. Being from California, this wasn't a strange or new experience for me, but it was clear the same could not be said for the majority of the DC population. It was a 5.9-magnitude earthquake, not terribly strong, but for a region where any sort of earthquake is a rarity, an earthquake of 5.9 is a pretty big deal. And you could tell from the reactions of the people here. It was like the world was ending or something. Nobody knew what was going on, or what to do. Everyone immediately ran out of their buildings and into the middle of the streets (THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO). I found the whole situation rather amusing, but I guess for someone who's never experienced an earthquake before, it was probably a rather traumatizing experience.
Then there was Hurricane Irene. Oh what a disappointment that was... As someone who has never been anywhere near a hurricane, I was pretty excited, especially because every news station was making a pretty big deal out of it. Of course I didn't want there to be a ton of destruction or anything, but I was excited about the possibility of hurricane-force winds. And then, nothing. Wind speeds less than 50 mph? Come on Irene... Yes, parts of the east coast were hammered pretty hard (sorta), but they (the news stations) had made such a big deal out if it that I figured there would be a bit more fireworks.
The Giants are killing me right now, and I really don't want to talk about them, so I won't. I think there's still a good chance they could come back and win the NL West, but they're not making it easy to watch right now...
It's a little over a month until the Baltimore Marathon, and I'm starting to get pretty excited. And by excited, I mean intimidated. 26.2 miles is a long, long way to run. The furthest I've run so far is 16 miles (I have another 16 to run tomorrow) and the fact that I'm going to still have to run 10+ miles on top of that is a bit daunting. Although as more information about the event is posted, the more I'm looking forward to it.
For the first time ever, the marathon course will go through the Baltimore Zoo, which should be fun. Unfortunately it's at the very beginning of the race and it's also for less than a mile, so I'll probably get to see the animals for maybe 5 minutes.
From what I've read, this event has been growing more and more every year, and it seems like there is a pretty good amount of support for it in the area, which will be great because it's always nice to have people cheering you on.
There are two characters towards the end of the route that I'm especially looking forward to, Eye of the Tiger Guy and Gummy Bear Guy. It's pretty self-explanatory really, but I'll fill you in nonetheless. Eye of the Tiger Guy has been going for the past 6 years or so (maybe more, I'm not sure). He sets up around mile 23 which is typically an uphill section (I'm not sure if he's at the bottom of the hill or in the middle). He has a stereo on top of his car blasting Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" on repeat. Oh, and he's also dressed in a full tiger suit and has been known to run the length of the hill with struggling runners. Should be pretty awesome. The Gummy Bear guy is not dressed up as a giant gummy bear (unfortunately) but he does have a station set up with a bunch of huge bowls which are, you guessed it, full of gummy bears. Exactly what you need for those last few miles. Simple carbohydrates. Energy.
I also don't have much to say about the 49ers, because I honestly don't know what to expect this year. The NFC West is wide open, so anything could happen, and I'm cautiously optimistic that Jim Harbaugh will be able to turn Alex Smith into the quarterback we thought we were drafting when we took him first overall in 2005. Who knows.
Well that's all I have for now. I'll do my best to provide more updates (I really will), especially on my marathon preparation, and I definitely plan to give a play-by-play account of the marathon (once I've recovered of course).
First the earthquake. Being from California, this wasn't a strange or new experience for me, but it was clear the same could not be said for the majority of the DC population. It was a 5.9-magnitude earthquake, not terribly strong, but for a region where any sort of earthquake is a rarity, an earthquake of 5.9 is a pretty big deal. And you could tell from the reactions of the people here. It was like the world was ending or something. Nobody knew what was going on, or what to do. Everyone immediately ran out of their buildings and into the middle of the streets (THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO). I found the whole situation rather amusing, but I guess for someone who's never experienced an earthquake before, it was probably a rather traumatizing experience.
Then there was Hurricane Irene. Oh what a disappointment that was... As someone who has never been anywhere near a hurricane, I was pretty excited, especially because every news station was making a pretty big deal out of it. Of course I didn't want there to be a ton of destruction or anything, but I was excited about the possibility of hurricane-force winds. And then, nothing. Wind speeds less than 50 mph? Come on Irene... Yes, parts of the east coast were hammered pretty hard (sorta), but they (the news stations) had made such a big deal out if it that I figured there would be a bit more fireworks.
The Giants are killing me right now, and I really don't want to talk about them, so I won't. I think there's still a good chance they could come back and win the NL West, but they're not making it easy to watch right now...
It's a little over a month until the Baltimore Marathon, and I'm starting to get pretty excited. And by excited, I mean intimidated. 26.2 miles is a long, long way to run. The furthest I've run so far is 16 miles (I have another 16 to run tomorrow) and the fact that I'm going to still have to run 10+ miles on top of that is a bit daunting. Although as more information about the event is posted, the more I'm looking forward to it.
For the first time ever, the marathon course will go through the Baltimore Zoo, which should be fun. Unfortunately it's at the very beginning of the race and it's also for less than a mile, so I'll probably get to see the animals for maybe 5 minutes.
From what I've read, this event has been growing more and more every year, and it seems like there is a pretty good amount of support for it in the area, which will be great because it's always nice to have people cheering you on.
There are two characters towards the end of the route that I'm especially looking forward to, Eye of the Tiger Guy and Gummy Bear Guy. It's pretty self-explanatory really, but I'll fill you in nonetheless. Eye of the Tiger Guy has been going for the past 6 years or so (maybe more, I'm not sure). He sets up around mile 23 which is typically an uphill section (I'm not sure if he's at the bottom of the hill or in the middle). He has a stereo on top of his car blasting Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" on repeat. Oh, and he's also dressed in a full tiger suit and has been known to run the length of the hill with struggling runners. Should be pretty awesome. The Gummy Bear guy is not dressed up as a giant gummy bear (unfortunately) but he does have a station set up with a bunch of huge bowls which are, you guessed it, full of gummy bears. Exactly what you need for those last few miles. Simple carbohydrates. Energy.
I also don't have much to say about the 49ers, because I honestly don't know what to expect this year. The NFC West is wide open, so anything could happen, and I'm cautiously optimistic that Jim Harbaugh will be able to turn Alex Smith into the quarterback we thought we were drafting when we took him first overall in 2005. Who knows.
Well that's all I have for now. I'll do my best to provide more updates (I really will), especially on my marathon preparation, and I definitely plan to give a play-by-play account of the marathon (once I've recovered of course).
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