Our First Marathon

We made it! Looking back today (we finished just a little over 24 hours ago from when I am writing this) there were many many times where I wondered if I would. It was fairly grueling. The first half was pretty comfortable for me. At about mile 13, I started to notice my legs getting tired and sore. By about mile 17 I could have stopped and been ok with it. Around mile 19 or 20 I was almost to the point of tears, but then I started almost hyperventilating, and that with running isn't a great combination (my throat got very small), so I had to chill so I could breathe. I wanted to stop so many times. Everything hurt. Probably the one thing I told myself that kept me going was: "If you stop now, it's still going to hurt, and you're going to have to walk all the way back. At least if you run, you'll get there sooner!" The last few miles felt like they were never going to end - each step seemed to hurt more and more. With about a quarter mile left Narasimha grabbed my hand and pretty much literally pulled me over the finish line. Somehow I beat him by 1 second (it was "chip" timing, so he probably technically started a little before me or something).

When we were done, all I wanted to do was sit down - after all, I had been looking forward to that for about 9 miles! But, Narasimha was pumped. Some kind of runner's high or something. He was walking around, eating everything, talking to all these people we knew and didn't. It was pretty funny. He's already talking about doing another one.

I know we could do better - we did not train as well as we could have. In the last 6 weeks of our training schedule, we missed over 100 miles of running, and that was out of only 270 miles. Which is too much to miss if you want to be consistent. So, all of that considered, I think we did pretty well. Our time was 4:02:42. That's an average of 9:16 minutes/mile. Our first 13 miles were under 9:00 pace, and then until mile 21 we were under 10:00 pace, but from mile 22 until the end our pace was over 10:00 - as you can see, we just slowly ran out of juice. But, we finished, and we never walked (we knew if we stopped to walk, even for a bit, we'd have not been able to convince our legs to run again!), and I think we did the best we could :)

Thanks to everyone who offered encouraging words during training or before the race - you are appreciated!

Just a few minutes before the start.

This was a little before the half-way mark - mile 13 was just a little after this.

Almost there - Narasimha has my hand and is determined that I will finish with just about a block or so to go!

Done - just by a few minutes, and talking to my mom and sisters.

Some of our cheering squad - my mom (middle) and sisters. Some of our friends from Narasimha's work also came to cheer for us, and then some friends from around my parent's house were there as well.

Running Woes

I am writing today to talk about something that has become a big part of our life in recent months. And by a big part, I mean big in the consumption of our time and energy. We have always liked to run. There have been different times in our marriage where running consistently wasn't an option, for whatever reason. But, back around the beginning of 2008 we decided that we were going to take our physical fitness more seriously. So we joined the gym, and made a work-out plan. We ran a 20K (12.4 miles) back in May, and really enjoyed it. We even walked away from it talking about how we could improve our running from that point. We were doing well, so we started a training program to run a marathon. The training was going well, so back in July, we registered to run a marathon (the earlier you decide and pay, the cheaper the race fee is). We continued to do well with our training until about a month or so ago.

At this point, we are supposed to be running almost 60 miles a week. We are not. Every week for about the last month, we have missed at least 1 run, and I can feel it taking its toll on our training. I know we're in shape - last night we ran 15 miles at a good pace, and by the end I was tired and sore, but far from dying.

I did not consider what we would have to give up to run so much. First, I didn't consider the time. If each mile on average takes 10 minutes (it doesn't - we run closer to 8:30 pace, or try to - but for the sake of the simplicity of math involved) then to run 60 miles a week would take roughly 10 hours. And, there is travel time to the place we run, and time to warm up and stretch and cool down, etc. Also, by the time you finish running 15-22 miles (our long runs) you are too tired and sore to do anything else. Not to mention, the days are getting shorter and shorter, so trying to get the run done by sunset is also a challenge (and if you are running in the dark, you get to hear the critters in the bushes beside you, and you get to step on like a million frogs on the trail - EWW!).

We are also both experiencing aches and pains that sometimes feel like more than just aches and pains. Narasimha's knee (his ilio-tibial band, or ITB, to be exact) has given him problems. I have terrible hips, and they hurt almost constantly and pop like crazy. My ankles also get very sore. I must say though - my issues seem to get better as I am running longer. Narasimha's knees are pretty ok right now, but are a little flakier than my joints. I think much of our pain could be alleviated with some good cross-training, but we don't have the time or calories at the end of the day to devote to that, at this point.

I am also disappointed with myself in the way that in the grand scheme of things, running isn't that important in my life. Yet somehow through all this training, it has taken a front row seat to almost everything that I do consider more important than running.

The positives of running: I am in good shape - my resting heart rate is probably low to mid-40's. When I get to bed, I sleep like a rock. Running is our "family time" together, and in my mind, it's better than watching TV all the time (which we no longer have time for). You can eat anything and everything you want, and you're still hungry! :) And, thinking toward the future: Even though we don't plan on running another marathon anytime soon, we do plan to keep running a not insane amount, and we feel we're getting ourselves in a good habit of exercise to be a good example to our kids when we have them.

So, there's my sob story. The marathon is 2 weeks from tomorrow (Oct 19). If I live through it, I'll post pics. If you wonder why I never post (or do anything else) anymore, here's 99% of the reason. Any words of wisdom out there?

I Timothy 4:8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that is now and of that which is to come. NKJV

Road Race

Today we ran a road race. I have not run in a race in a long time, and today was actually Narasimha's first race ever. We did pretty well - right about what we wanted to do for time. We train together, so we stayed together for the race. We finished within a few seconds of each other. It was a 20K(ilometer), which is 12.4 miles. It took us right at 1 hour 45 minutes (the official time is longer because that starts with the gun, and it took us about 90 seconds to reach the start line, and I didn't start my watch until we stepped on the start line). My mom and several friends ran too. The weather was beautiful, and not a whole lot of wind. Although we're both feeling a little slow and sore tonight, we had a good time today with our road race.

My dad rode along the course on his bike and took a few pics for us - Narasimha and I are the ones waving :)

Here we ran with my mom for a while (we are the 3rd, 4th, and 5th ones from the left).

DONE!!! Sore, sweaty and tired, but still smiling :)