Run Your Heart Out...

The Alaska Heart Run (5k) is a charity fundraiser for the Alaska chapter of the American Heart Association. Every year the event gets bigger and bigger and this year was no exception. With almost 6,000 participants raising more than $200.000, it was a great success.

The Heart Run is the start of a season of runs across the state and a testimony to all my winter training. This year I finished with two personal records… one for fastest pace and the other for overall time. I finished in 21:24 with a pace of 6:54. It felt incredible.

The 3.1 mile course stretches across the UAA and APU college campus with only one hill. As we came to the first mile there was a volunteer shouting out the time, “seven oh four, seven oh seven” and so on. I knew at that point I was pacing fairly well. I just didn’t know how well.

By this point I had identified a couple of people that were running just a little stronger than me. They kept a pace that pushed me to keep going, I wanted to beat them. I wanted to put them behind me and a few times I did. There was this one guy who was running in front of me that I just had to pass.

He was running strong, but everything about him hurt my eyes. He had the worse form but it didn’t seem to bother him, nor did it slow him down. He had a week left ankle that seemed to roll with every step. He was hunched over at the shoulders and had a large arch in his back. He came down with a thud on his heels as he lingered just in front of me always blocking my path around him. I was going crazy thinking that this guy was beating me.

We played a back and fourth game for the first 2 miles and then all that bad form caught up to him and I could tell he was getting tired. I made my move and never looked back. I don’t know what his name was or his overall time, but I do know I finished ahead of him.

I saw him later after we had both completed the 5k race. I wanted to go up to him and tell him what a great job he did, but in my head it just sounded so smug. I didn’t want to come across as and a-hole, so I just gave him the congratulatory nod. He did the same in return.

Now onto the other person I had my eyes set on. She was an older female maybe in her late 30’s early 40’s. You could tell she was no rooky at this running thing. She had excellent form and never seemed to be out of breath. We paced each other several times. She always seemed to move ahead of me with minimal effort. Several times she got far enough ahead of me that I lost her in the crowed.

We approached the finish line in the same group of 12 or so people. When we came around the corner and no one got excited I yelled out to go and began pumping my legs and arms as hard and fast as I could. I just barley passed the woman to finish seconds ahead of her.

As I tried to catch my breath with my already burning lungs, I felt a heave come up from deep in my gut. I ran over to where no one would see and gave up a victory-puke.

It was a great race and one I look forward to next year. If the rest of the season is at all as good as this run I am in for an incredible summer of fun.

The Alaskan weather has been just amazing. I can’t help but take full advantage of it by running every chance I get. A few things to note about running in an urban setting, the road hazards can be extremely dangerous.

While the bike trails are still snow covered I have had to take my running to the main trails that run alongside some of Anchorage’s most trafficked streets.

Now it’s not these main roads that pose the threat, it’s the side streets that are dangerous. Each little residential road that pours out onto our highways creates a hazard, mostly drivers pulling out and not looking both ways before proceeding to merge.

As a pedestrian I take my role to run safe very seriously. My life is potentially on the line and in some cases I am pushing my two-year-old along in our jogger too.

I wear bright colored clothes and run against traffic always on the trail and never in the street. I try to make eye contact with the drivers as they pull out and look for the head nod or a wave letting me know that they see me. However it’s quite frustrating when a driver has pulled out so far that you can’t get around them and they refused to look both ways causing me to either have to stop and wait or literally jump up and down waving my arms in hopes that they see me as I cross in front of them.

This of course has caused me to evaluate my own driving habits. I now am more aware of how important being pedestrian friendly driver is. I ease into spots that might create a dangerous situation for me or any pedestrian running, walking or biking by. I look both ways and always give the head nod whether they are looking or not.

It’s important that we all do our part to be safe out there. Pedestrian and drivers alike all have to own their role in keeping the roads and trails safe for everyone.

closet eater

About once a month I get a little down on myself about my weight. I work very hard to maintain my current weight and push myself to overcome a very serious plateau.

It has been a year now and I haven’t been able to hold onto anything below 190 pounds. Overall I think I can be very proud of myself as I have lost 35 pounds total. However I still need to lose about 15 more to be at an ideal weight. I would be happy if I could get down to 180.

So the biggest problem that I have when I get into these funks is, I tend to show it through a binder of bad food consumption. Sweets are the enemy and I can indulge in them like a pro. I eat three cupcakes today, three amazing cupcakes. For lunch I ate a fried egg roll that latterly oozed grease down my chin as I sucked the thing down like a starving Ethiopian child.

The really sad part is that when I do this I often hide it. I will shame eat in the car or behind a closed door. It’s kind of funny but horribly sad at the same time.

I am sure that this will be most notable in my run tonight or even tomorrow when it feels just a little harder than normal to keep pace.

I am such a weirdo.

That's the plan...

The weather is getting warmer and the snow is melting at an accelerated rate. This makes me very happy. As you may recall I got to do some outdoor running while I was in San Diego on business. I tackled this crazy hill and it about wiped me out. After four miles I was just beat. I am determined to finish my 12k this June in 45min or less. It is going to be tuff to do, but I know once I make up my mind that that’s the plan, then that’s the plan.

Just A Quick Blurb

Running in San Diego was great. I had so much fun running outside. I can’t wait to be able to do that here at home in the midnight sun of summer.

Sunday March 11, 2012
A dear friend of mine completed a half marathon in Honolulu, Hawaii. This wasn’t his first one; in fact he has been running now for several years. Prior to the race he posted his completion goal to Facebook. He informed us that he was hoping to finish in 1:40 or less. He actual finished in 1:41 and some change. His average pace was 7:34, that’s how long it took him to run a mile. I am so impressed with his running and his competiveness. This friend of mine has been my mentor in business, as he was once my boss. Now he is one of my inspirations in running. I have watched him over the years get better and better, faster and faster. Every time I get tired or think that it’s getting too hard, he’ll post something about one of his running achievements and BOOM I am inspired again.

Last night, while running on the treadmill, I thought about his race day pace and wanted to see just how fast that was and how long I could hold it. Right now I have been running most nights at a pace of 10-12 minute miles and a tempo pace of 9-9.30 minute miles. So at the end of my run with only a quarter mile left I decided to go for it. I pumped up the pace to 7.13 and booked it. OMG, that was intense. With less than a 10th of a mile left, I grabbed for the handles to check my heart rate only to see a flashing warning go across the screen telling me that it is not recommend continuing at this pace and then a HR of 160bpm. I didn’t think that was that bad considering I have pushed my hr upwards of 180bpm. Regardless that was one hell of a run. I have a lot of work to do if I am going to be able to keep a pace like that.

And now the motivational chant that I will repeat to myself over and over again… Just Keep Training. Just Keep Training. Just keep Training.

Training in Alaska

I have been training off and on now for more than a year, taking some time for recovery or illnesses. People ask me what I do in the winter, meaning are you running outside. The answer is no. I run indoors on the treadmill or dreadmill as I sometimes call it.

I think about running outside sometimes and then I remember that it’s cold, icy, snowy and cold. I think about my feet getting wet as snow inevitably creeps in to my shoes and I think about sweat freezing to my face or anywhere else I might get damp. Suddenly running outside in below freezing temperatures on trails baring record amounts of snow just doesn’t seem appealing. Not to mention the year round moose dilemma.

Of course there are all kinds of gear designed to keep you going in these types of conditions but right now I just am not willing to make that kind of investment. There are special snow griping shoes with goretex protection and ultra dry wicking fabrics to keep your body dry and warm, head lamps and reflective tape. It all seems a little overwhelming to me.

Right now I am sticking to the treadmill where I can be warm and control my pace just a little better. It may not be until June that the trails completely dry out, but I’ll be ready when they are. I can’t wait to hit the hills and see all the happy people out and about. I also can’t to take my kids with me in the jogger.

Maybe that’s what I’ll write about next.