I DID IT!!!!

3:08:29 -- qualifed for Boston!!!!!!!

...and that included running the last 11.5 miles with searing pain in my right knee...

More details to come!

Runner #6148 - ready for battle

First off....thank you Sean Casey and Kenny Rogers for being the only players to show up for the Tigers in the World Series.

Never in a million years would I have believed you if you told me that Jeff Weaver (of all people) would beat the Tigers to win the World Series, let alone this season. Oh well, hats off to the Cardinals, they deserved it. I'm sad that the Tigers didn't win it, but hey...everybody expected them to maybe get back to .500 and that's it....so I'm not mad, I'm impressed! Now it's back to reality, the Tigers are done and we can cheer for the Red Wings and Pistons now.

Sooooo you may have heard that there's this marathon tomorrow or something, I don't know. But I'm pretty excited for it!

Yesterday morning I did a simulated easy run of 3 miles. I say simulated because I wore the same shorts and shoes that I'm gonna run in tomorrow, as well as the same configuration on top (technical t-shirt and long sleeve shirt plus gloves....though not the same ones). I ran at 7:15am and it was 39 with a wind chill of 34....perfect. At first I was freezing due to the shock of going from my protective house to the outdoors, but after about a half mile I was fine. The whole run was fine, and the only complaint I had was that my hands were rock hard even with gloves on. (Mental note - bring a couple more pairs of gloves to the race). It was also funny seeing all the weird looks from people who were bundled up and walking to their 8am classes.

I've been watching the weather report like a mad man since the beginning of the week. Today is supposed to be horrible, mostly because of the rain and the WIND! Damn the wind! The consensus is winds of 20-30mph with possible gusts up to 50, and there's a wind advisory out until 7am tomorrow...right when the race is about to start. As of right now, weather.com is saying the rain will be gone tonight, and at 7am it will be partly cloudy, 37 degrees with a wind chill of 27, and winds out of the west at 17mph. As far as I'm concerned, that's not too bad.

Yesterday I went down to pick up my race number and tour the little expo that they had. I bought tearaway pants and jackets from Sport Shell, which makes their clothing out of the same stuff that insulates houses. I figure I'll be alright once I start running (as I was yesterday morning), but there will be a time when I'll be standing around in the starting corrall. Plus they were only $7 each so I won't be bashful about tossing them to the curb in the middle of the race if I have to.

Ok, so you wanna know my race day strategy, huh? Well...simply put, slow and controlled. Well, slow for me. BQ pace is 7:14/mile and even though I know I can go 7 minutes or under per mile (as witnessed in my 20 miler), I know the cold and wind will dictate my pace. It may screw up my splits a little bit, but I'll just have to adjust to that. On the parts where the wind is against us, I'll try to tuck in behind a pack of runners to take away some wind resistance, but when we're with the wind I'll try to just glide with it. Common sense.

Here's a pdf file of the course map, and I'll end this with a couple of quotes. The first is from my friend Steve, who just ran 2:57 in Chicago and emailed me to give me some advice on the marathon, and the second one is one that will definitely come in handy tomorrow.

"Seconds lost early in a marathon are minutes gained later." --Steve, on being slow and controlled.

"Sometimes the wind is against me. I breathe it only because I have to. I suck it in and spit it out cursing, but today we're going the same way. And it's everything I can do stay on the ground." -- Advertisement for Reebok

Why am I doing this?

Monday I biked a bunch as usual and Tuesday I jumped on the elliptical for 4 miles. Kind of like a broken record, huh? Good news is that my knee just kind of magically felt better on Monday, it's great now. Weird how that works...

During some of my long runs, I have sometimes posed the question of "Why am I doing this?" to myself. Well, it's time for me to come out with the answer...

It's fairly simple, really. My sister ran the Detroit Marathon last year, her second one, and she was doing everything she could to qualify for Boston. My parents, my brother, and I went down to cheer her on and we stationed ourselves near the finish. I backtracked on the course by myself so that I could spot her and let my parents know that she was coming so they would be ready with their cameras. Her qualifying time for Boston was 3:40 and she predicted that she'd probably be finishing around that time. I kept watching pace groups go by, and I got worried....but at the same time, I was watching runners giving all that they had for the last mile of the race of their lives. Eventually, I saw my sister right near the 3:40 pace group and she looked absolutely exhausted...but then again, I don't blame her. I cheered her on, starting jogging to stay with her, and eventually ran to catch up with my parents. She finished in 3:39:06, qualifed for Boston, and later told me that I helped her stay strong through the finish because she absolutely had nothing left. It was then that I knew that I really had to experience this for myself.

I also remember an assignment I had to do in high school - we had to make a list of goals that we wanted to accomplish in our lifetime. One of those was "run the Boston Marathon"...and I wasn't even a runner at that point! Now, I figured this year gives me just as good of a chance to do it as any point in the future, especially if I end up going to med school or grad school. It's been tough, but I feel like I've put in all the training and I really feel good about this Sunday.

My sister didn't get to run the Chicago Marathon this past Sunday because of a lingering foot injury, but she'll still be able to run Boston in 2007 because BQ times are valid for a year and a half...meaning she can still use her time from last year's Detroit Marathon. She also has told me that Boston may be her last marathon, at least for a while, so wouldn't that be cool if I can qualify and we can run Boston together?

All I know is I gotta take care of business first. 4 more days....

Absolutely amazing

I've wanted to post on here sometime this week, but I never found a good window to sit down and type until now...blame school.

I know I talk a lot about Michigan State football, but WTF?!? They were down 38-3 against Northwestern (of all teams) and they end up engineering the biggest comeback ever between Division 1-A teams to win 41-38. Who knew? (It tied the record for biggest comeback ever in all of college football - Nevada also came back from 35 down against Weber State in 1991.) Absolutely amazing.

And how about those Tigers?!? Kenny Rogers is a man amongst boys out there. Series is tied 1-1 going back to St. Louis...it's gonna be interesting! And the crazy thing about it is games 6 and 7 are in Detroit on Saturday and Sunday....and the marathon is Sunday morning....so I think the city is gonna be rocking! Absolutely amazing.

Ok, running talk now. I'm still fighting with myself over what to wear for the marathon. On Friday morning I tried to a simulated run - I went out there about 8:15am and the temp was 39 but felt like 36. The marathon starts at 7:15am Sunday, but that morning is also when daylight savings time ends, so we push the clock back an hour. Plus, it looks like it'll be cold like it was Friday morning. I wore a short sleeve technical shirt and a sort of heavy long sleeve technical short over that, and spandex and shorts on the bottom, plus a pair of gloves. I felt great at the beginning because I kept myself warm, but at the end I was getting to be too hot for comfort. And that was after only 4 miles.

Ok. This past week I was reading the latest issue of Runner's World, and they had a sort of FAQ about the 3 major marathons coming up. One of them was Chicago, and they posed the question of what to wear, because it can get chilly at the end of October. The guy they asked responded, "If it's in the 30s or 40s, wear a long-sleeve shirt made of a technical fabric like Dri-FIT on top of your singlet, with shorts and gloves."

Flash forward to this morning. I wake up, it's 44 degrees with light rain. I contemplate waiting for the rain to pass to run my 8 miles, but also figure it may rain on race day so I might as well get used to it. I wore everything the guy said, except I had a short-sleeve technical shirt and a lightweight long-sleeve shirt over that. Honestly, I felt just fine. The only problem were my fingers being a little cold, but that went away after about 3.5 miles. Nonetheless, that just reaffirms in my head that I'll be alright with whatever I end up wearing.

The run was going great until the last mile, I felt a twinge in my right knee. It's weird because I can't trace it back to anything specific, though it may be when I jumped from a curb to the street in my neighborhood. I stopped with a half mile to go, massaged it, then treated the last half mile as a slow cool-down. All the pain went away (weird....), but then came back during the afternoon. As I recall, this happened to me a few weeks ago and it went away in a couple days after I iced it a bunch. So, I'm confident that this will go away quick too as long as I take care of it.

I'm not a fan of writing such long posts, but I'll end with congrats to Zeke and my friend Steve at the Chicago Marathon this morning. Zeke ran it in 2:58:57 and Steve ran it in 2:56:56.....and they're both 37 years old. I hope I can be that fast at that age!

Absolutely amazing.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Did anybody see the Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears game on Monday Night Football last night? It was eerily similar to the situation Michigan State has been in this season...

It most notably compares to when we played Notre Dame. MSU was a team looking for respect against a very strong team, kind of like what the Cardinals were doing against the Bears. Arizona had a 23-3 lead on the last play of the 3rd quarter, when they fumbled the ball and Chicago returned it for a 23-10 score going to the 4th quarter. Chicago then got another fumble return for a touchdown with 5 minutes left when Arizona was trying to run the clock, making it 23-17. Next possession, Arizona has to punt and THAT gets returned for a touchdown, putting the Bears up 24-23. One last chance for Arizona, they get in field goal range, and they miss it wide left. Bears win, bears win. I'm sorry, but if your QB throws for zero TDs and four interceptions (as Rex Grossman of Chicago did), then you don't deserve to win. That defense is something special.

When MSU played Notre Dame, MSU had a 17 point lead in the 3rd quarter and was seemingly in control...it's just weird how that game looked so much like last night's game.

Ok so anyway...yesterday I biked about 15 miles to loosen up my muscles, and today I did another 4 miles on the elliptical to give my hip a little rest. It feels much much better than it did last week, but I'm still icing it and such just in case. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can never be too careful with this stuff.

I think the general consensus for my race is to wear lightweight clothing because it WILL get warm during the latter part of the race (both me and the atmosphere). I hear I can buy some tearaway pants or shirts at the Salvation Army or something, so that I can throw them to the curb if I need to and not have to worry about any emotional attachments to any pieces of clothing. Kudos to my sister on that idea, because that's what she did last year and it worked out great.

The clothing is one thing I've been worried about, and here are two more things that I hope some people can give me an insight into....

1. What/when should I eat before the race?
2. How long should I warm up before the race?

For my 20 miler, I ate a bowl of oatmeal and a bagel with honey about 2 hours before the start and I felt great. I also had my Clif Shot Blocks during the run too. The problem with the oatmeal is that I may be leaving for the race about 3 hours before start time to avoid traffic problems, and oatmeal needs hot water....hmm. Regarding the warmup, I was in a hurry before the start of the 20 miler (because it was part of a 10 mile race) and I was only able to do about a half-mile warmup.....and then I pulled off a 2:20, on pace for a 3:04 marathon. I'm sure I'll want to do more warmup in Detroit because it will be colder, but I don't wanna tire myself out at the same time. So, what is an ideal warmup for a marathon? Any ideas on these would be greatly appreciated....

12 days away.

Only when I stop to think about it...

How busy was my week? I didn't have time to write a simple "GO STATE! BEAT THE BUCKEYES" post, but it didn't really matter anyway. Ohio State scored 38 points and only allowed 7 (pity) points in the last minute of the game. 0-3 in the Big Ten, 3-4 overall. What now?

Let's see....Thursday I went 4 miles on the elliptical but I did intervals - 2 minutes easy at low resistance and 2 minutes hard at high resistance. Twas a vicious cycle, for sure. Friday morning I jumped on the treadmill because a) my hip was feeling fine, and b) it was damn cold/windy outside and I was miserable, so I didn't wanna exacerbate the situation. Things went well, and I had no problems for the rest of the day. Yesterday during the game though, my hip just seemed like it was burning all through our pregame routine, just like last weekend. I've been icing it and massaging it like whoa, and taking some advil every now and then, so I know it's slowly getting better.

This morning I went 12 miles with Krista, though she dropped out at 10 because she had to go to work. It took my mind off the pain for the most part, but I could still feel a bit of something in my hip when I was thinking about it. But, just like last Sunday, it only hurt for the first 3-4 miles and then faded away through the rest of the run. I forgot to take splits when I needed to, but we were pretty much around 8 minute pace +/- 15 seconds for the whole run, which was just fine with me because I'm in the taper phase and didn't wanna do another hard long run. I felt great after finishing, took an ice bath, and now I really feel fantastic. My legs don't feel like they're gonna be sore at all tomorrow, which is a big plus. I guess that's what all the marathon training will do for you!

In continuation from my last post, it was literally freezing when we started (about 32 degrees), so I wore spandex with shorts on the outside, and a technical t-shirt and technical long sleeve shirt on top with gloves too. I was fine for the first 8 or 9 miles, but then I just got hot at the end. Then again, it was sunny and the high was supposed to be 55 today. I think what I'm gonna ultimately do, depending on the weather obviously, is wear shorts on race day but also buy some cheap pants that I can just throw to the curb during the race if I have to.

Speaking of taper phase though...yesterday was our 7th Saturday in a row that we (marching band) had to play at the game. That's 5 home games and 2 away games, but now we get the next two Saturdays off. I probably won't even know what to do with myself this Saturday...but it will be great to have the next couple of weeks toned down a bit.

Yesterday was the Greater Lansing Cross Country Invitational where basically all the high schools around here battle for local bragging rights. My HS, Okemos, was heavily favored to win the girls race and was expected to contend for the boys race. Here's what went down...for the boys, Okemos and Howell both placed 4 guys under 17:23 and in the top 28, and both were tied with 72 points. Ok, so the 5th guy in will decide who wins it....Howell got their 5th guy in 58th place (17:57) while Okemos had to wait a while for their 5th guy in 109th place (18:36), so Howell ended up placing first, an always powerful Williamston squad (for whom my buddy BJ ran for) came in second, and Okemos settled for third. On the girls side, the Okemos girls placed second and got upset by an East Lansing squad who just happened to have every runner run a great race on the same day, which has been their problem all season. Interested in all of the results? Go here.

Marathon fever is really starting to hit me! On Thursday I went down to Detroit with my father to see how to actually get to where I'm supposed to go, as well as scout out the parking situation. Yesterday, Jess ran the Baltimore Marathon, and as I was checking out her race report, it just got me much more excited for mine. This Sunday brings the Chicago Marathon, which I know Zeke and my buddy Steve are running, so good luck to them.

Two weeks until race day!! And I can't end this post without saying GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!! WORLD SERIES, HERE WE COME!!!!!!!

Warm me up

Well, Monday I did my usual biking regimen, about 15 miles to loosen up the muscles, and then did 4 on the elliptical yesterday, and today I lifted weights. The hip is feeling much better, though I can still feel something there so I'm still bombarding it with ice, advil, and massage. I guess I'm feeling like being short and to the point today.

This weather S-U-C-K-S. It makes me nervous because I really don't know what it's gonna be like on the 29th. I know it'll probably be ass cold at the start....come on, it's Michigan in late October. Ok, so I'll wear spandex with shorts on the outside to carry my Clif Shot Blocks, and a couple of technical shirts on top, maybe a headband and gloves too. Sounds like a plan...but what if I get too hot? I don't know, maybe I'm just freaking out because it's my first time.

How about them Tigers?!?!? You better believe it...

p.s. I hate school.

Nothing short of a miracle

Well...Michigan creamed MSU on Saturday, 31-13, to send MSU to 0-2 in the Big Ten and 3-3 overall. What got me upset was the stupid mistakes we made during the game (see 3 defensive offsides, 3 roughing/running into the kicker penalties, 1 late hit out of bounds, etc.) and the amount of dropped catches. Oh well...enough about that.

All during our pregame performance, there was this dull pain in my hip and it was worrying me because I didn't have any idea how I was going to run this morning. I also worried about it for pretty much the whole game...I know I'm lame, what else is new? I tried to massage it as much as I could during the game and afterward on the ride home, then gave it some ice when I got back to my place.

When I got up this morning, I had every intention of going out for a long run of 15-20 miles, so I planned it like I would even if the pain was there. I ate a good breakfast, iced the hip, and everything felt fine. Finally I got out there and started out on a 5 mile out-and-back course that would allow me to turn around if needed, or check how I'm doing at the 10 mile mark and determine whether or not to run some more. Everything was great until 2.5 miles in when my hip seemed to be flaring up. It was a dull pain and it seemed to be in one of my butt muscles, so I kept trucking figuring that the pain would go away. The episode of the Phedippidations podcast I was listening to was about mental toughness for runners, and soon after I started feeling pain they were talking about staying positive and running with good form. I thought about it for a second, did a little checklist of how my form should be, and realized that it wasn't very satisfactory at that moment. So I cleared it up, stopped thinking about my hip hurting, and soon enough the pain went away. Weird how that works, huh? I seemed to be a little excited too...I passed 5 miles in 36:01.

On the next 5 miles, I really started to come into my own and feel great, so I started thinking about how many more miles I would do after I did the first 10. I also took the time to reminisce on yesterday's game and remind myself of all the reasons I call myself a spartan. Though things may not go right so often on the football field, I'd much rather lose as a spartan than win as anybody else. Plain and simple. It may sound cheesy, but I wanted to add that in here.

I finished the second 5 miles in 35:30, a little faster than the first 5. Told you I was going quick, and I'm not sure why because it certainly didn't feel like I was going that fast. After that, I made the executive decision to do a different 4 mile out-and-back course. Or so I thought....I was skeptical about it when I was running it and realized that I accidentally cut some of the first part off, so it ended up being a total of an extra 7 miles. While running those last 7 miles, I was listening to the next episode of the Phedippidations podcast about University of Oregon coaching legend Bill Bowerman. One quote he had that I really like...

"I still bother with runners I call 'hamburgers'. They're never gonna run any record times, but they can fulfill their own potential." --Bill Bowerman

Sounds like me in the description of me in my profile! Anyway, everything felt fine through the rest of the run, the pain in the hip never came back. It seemed like nothing short of a miracle that I did 17 miles today, in 2 hours and 1 minute no less.

Tonight was the Playmakers race series awards banquet. I ended up finishing 2nd in my age group to my buddy BJ, so I'm ok with that. Afterwards, I got to chat it up with my friend Steve, a 37 year old runner who has only been running for about 6 years but already has a wealth of experience. He even runs sub-17 minute 5K's...we all joke with him that he had a mid-life crisis and running was his way out of it. We talked about our marathons coming up - he's doing Chicago in 2 weeks and I'm doing Detroit in 3 weeks. He ran Detroit last year and gave me some good tips about the course, but most of what he was emphasizing was to RUN MY OWN RACE. I don't think he could have stressed that enough. He said my line of thinking should be that many people may pass me in the beginning, but they're all hopped up on adrenaline and will crash in the middle of the race, and I'll pass them while running strong. He also told me to maintain my confidence and think of all the great runs I've had in my training, especially that 20 miler I did a couple weeks ago. All in all, he had some good things to say and I really absorbed every bit of it.

One more thing for everybody, I got this from my friend Megan, but it's a very inspiring running story from a middle school kid.

Whew, 3 weeks until the big day!

GO STATE! BEAT MICHIGAN!

I wanna respond to Susie's comment on my last post to start this one...

Most of the past 3 years, I've been one to defend MSU football coach John L. Smith, but for some reason I just lost all sanity this weekend when it comes to the subject. The football program has come a long way from the 4-8 season of 2002, and with the addition of an exciting spread offense and some quality recruits, this team really seems to be on the verge of a breakout season. If anything, I should place the blame on the offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin, but then again it's ultimately up to the players to perform. Susie found this quote...

"I don't think everybody gets a full sense of what he's done since he's been here, and really taken an in-depth look at what's been going on in the program and the overhaul that's taken place" --MSU quarterback Drew Stanton said of Smith (10/6/06)

In a society that's hell bent on immediate results, nobody wants to be patient with a coach and it seems nowadays that it's a 3 year rule - if a coach doesn't post great results in 3 years, then they all want to give him the axe. The problem is, you can't keep doing that every 3 years and expect to build a quality program. The next two games match us against Michigan and Ohio State, and there's no doubt in my mind that if we lose both games then a lot more people are going to jump on the "Fire John L. Smith bandwagon".

Enough about that...tomorrow's the next great installment of the intrastate rivalry and I sure hope it's a good one! I'm not expecting much, but with a somewhat injured QB, our starting running back out for the season, and a still-trying-to-gel offensive line, I just really want MSU to make it a respectable game, win or lose.

And how about those Tigers?!?!? Heck yea man! It's funny because usually at this time of year the Tigers have been declared long dead and the Lions are nothing special, so I always look forward to the Red Wings starting their season. Problem was...I didn't realize their season opener was last night until they were actually playing it!

And I do realize this is a RUNNING blog...sometimes I get on a tangent, haha. Tuesday I ran 4 miles and my leg felt fine. Thursday I went 4 and a half and tried a little fartlek workout where I jog for 1 minute, run fast for 1 minute, jog for 2 minutes, run fast for 2 minutes, and then repeat the cycle as needed, but about halfway through I felt a little tenderness on my upper thigh where it had been hurting, so I jogged the rest of the way home. Tonight I went 4 miles on the elliptical so I could get some more low impact miles in. We'll see how I feel on Sunday, but I'm gonna be doing my last very long run before Detroit. It's gonna be somewhere between 15-20 miles, hopefully closer to 20, but again it all depends on me listening to my body and seeing how it responds.

In conclusion, I love sports, I love running, and I enjoy long walks on the beach. All interested good-looking girls apply within....haha.

Frustrated

I'm gonna jump on my sports soapbox here for a minute...

MSU lost to Illinois, a team that hadn't won a Big Ten game in two years. Adding insult to injury, our QB suffered bruised ribs (is probable for this weekend) and our starting running back is out for the season due to what I've heard is a torn ACL. It's amazing what one week can do for you....last Saturday we were 3-0 and DOMINATING Notre Dame in the 3rd quarter, and now we're reeling at 3-2 and playing our next two games against #6 Michigan and #1 Ohio State. Ouch. What really gets me though is our coach. He doesn't have control of this team anymore and nobody on campus likes him anymore either. His main quote after the loss to Illinois..."All week. That's the way we practiced, what you saw.

"We can't get them to go. And apparently I don't have the answer." -Coach John L. Smith

Well Coach, if you don't have the answers then who does?? This guy has gotta go...

Baseball now - congrats to the Twins on winning the AL Central, but are you telling me that the Tigers can't even win one game out of three against a 100 loss team? The Tigers didn't even deserve to win the division and now they're gonna get annihilated against New York. I love my Tigers, but I'm a realist.

End rant. Sigh...frustrating.

As for my running, it's been weird. My knee just kind of magically felt better on Saturday, but after we were marching out of the stadium after the football game, I got introduced to a bout of trochanteric bursitis on my right side. I know it was that because I had the same thing in high school, but on the left side, so I knew how to take care of it too. Sunday morning I jogged the last 5K in the Playmakers Race Series so I could run my total of 6 out of 12 races and get a cool t-shirt, and things felt alright. But then again, I was under the influence of Advil and Icy Hot. I took care of it the rest of Sunday and all of Monday, then ran 4 miles this morning. It was mostly a run to get my mind off things, but it was good run as everything felt alright.

Well, that's that....time to go study more for the big physiology exam tomorrow....