National Marathon / 4:40:47

Getting there:

I had two options to get to RFK, take Indepedence Ave all the way there or take the Southwest Freeway.  I only chose Independence Ave because it looked simpler on Google maps, but that decision was big mistake.  The arteries leading onto Independence were horrendous, and didn’t move at all.  I left my house @ 5:30 and had to park onto a curb @ around 6:30 in one of the packed lots.

Pre race:

No one cared about corral assignment (at least at my lowly corral— I was assigned to 9 of 10)  I mistakenly walked into corral 8 but when I saw the 4:30 pace person in 9 I knew that was were I wanted to be.  It was cold, but I didn’t feel I had to wait long.  Right before the starting line there was a row of portapotties.  I quickly went into one and it looked like someone cooked chili and left it on the stove too long, way TOO long… all over the place, maybe even on the ceiling(how the hell??).  So yeah I picked another one, pee-ed and was off!

Mile 1-4:

I had lost the 4:30 pace person due to my bathroom stop, so the first 2 miles were spent catching the guy.  After I caught him, I got cocky and thought this group was going to slow.  The course was either flat or downhill at this point, so it felt easy.  This is where I hatched my brilliant plan!  Let’s make this fun and play a game, “Catch the 4:20 pacer!!”   This of course breaks the cardinal rule of marathoning , “Don’t start too fast!”.  But I was feeling good and I figured, what the hell!  The 4:20 pacer was in the corral ahead of me, so I was thinking it was going to take some effort.  They had a 5-8 minute head start on me and were doing a little less than 10 min/mi.  

Mile 5- 9:

The hills from 5-8 were not as bad as I thought they would be.  I actually do my practice runs on a hilly course and those hills put this one to shame.  So it was all gooood.  (Notice the cockiness?  Don’t worry, I get brought back down to Earth soon).  And the downhill after the 180 ft rise in elevation?  Butter baby!  That means easy right?  I could smell the 4:20 pacer… I knew I was close.  Why hadn’t I caught them yet?   Yeah, I didn’t do the math, I was busy what, running?!

Mile 10-15

Somewhere during the 10th mile I caught the 4:20 pacer.   And then I thought, hmm.. Legs still ok?  Check.  Breathing normal?  Check.  Feet ok?  Check.  And I proceded to keep my catch up with the 4:20 pacer pace, after passing the 4:20 pacer.  I figured, when I slow down later, and the 4:20 pacer is about to pass me, I’ll stick to them like glue.  Mile 13 came and went unspectacularly althought the course got a lot less crowded due to the half marathoners splitting away from us.  Honestly I felt great at this point and would’ve felt unfulfilled if the race ended there.  Mile 15 was a lot like mile 1, except my legs were a lot more fatigued.  Nothing major though.

Mile 16-20

Mile 16 I felt a slight pain in my left knee.  It felt like it was on the brink of doing something horrendously bad, so I slowed down.  Keep 10 minute pace I told myself, and Oprah goes down today.  Mile 18 the 4:20 pacer ran passed me.  I tried to join the pack but I didn’t have high enough of a gear.  As I crossed into Maryland,  my legs and body in general were breaking down hard.  I felt like I was carrying two of me at this point.

Mile 20-24:

The bridge felt hazardous to cross at my messed up state.  It was all gridlike and protruding and I felt like my feet were going to seep into it like slime with every step.  Thankfully I did not trip.  Mile 22 is where the wheels came off.  At this point I had more or less ran, but I started taking walk breaks.  I played run to that sign post, walk to that sign post until mile 23-ish.   I saw the 4:30 pacer around this time and focused on keeping up with him, knowing if I lost him Oprah would be victorious.  Some walking runners screamed I was losing him!!  I tried with every part of me to keep with him but the body won over the mind.  He lost me after half a mile.  Mile 24 I started playing a new game called “Whatever you do, don’t die.”  Not as fun as “Catch the 4:20 pacer”, take my word for it… Every part of me was exhausted and felt on the verge of cramping.  I did walk/run again, with a focus on walking until mile 25.  My phone/music player died.  Damn Evo battery life.

Mile 25 - Finish:

There is something about the final mile that motivates me like nothing else.  It’s just knowing that the pain will stop soon.  And so I went.  I jogged.  I was delirious.  I didn’t have energy since 23.5.  Oprah was victorious, no way I was beating 4:30.  But I could still get a PR.  And that’s something.  I wanted to walk so bad.  But I forced myself to shuffle.  I could see RFK.  Left leg cramping up, both legs numb.  Feet hurt, but not exploding.  Back/shoulders like someone stabbing me.  Thighs tight like they were about to rip.  Salt all over my face, sweat dripping from the brim of my cap.  I knew I could stop soon.  Keep going, few more minutes… Mile 26 I saw a familiar face, my cousin cheered me on and gave me an extra burst of energy.  I saw Karen a couple hundred feet later, “Run Erwin, Run!!!” (hallucination? indeed)  The crowd cheered, not for me but I pretended.  I saw the finish and I gunned it.  I crossed the line and it was done.  

Walt Disney World Marathon / 4:47:54

Recap coming eventually, I have all these notes that I wanted to put together for one.  Kinda lazy too but… felt I needed to put something up!  The summary: Was a hard but great experience and now I want to a) run another marathon to beat my arch nemesis Oprah Winfrey b) Goofy Challenge 2012

Really looking forward to this!

Sadly an old injury came back to haunt me.  Will try to bounce back later this year, but it sucks because I’ll most likely miss the Marine Corps Marathon.   Oprah’s time is safe from me yet again.  You’ll get yours from me next year Oprah!!  (Eww?)

bendoeslife:

There are a couple messages from some new followers that don’t know my whole story. So today I made a video. I’ll admit I used a couple cheesy subtitles in an effort to score some extra views on Youtube (Youtubers love cheesy inspirational stuff.) And I basically cheated by using the best song ever in the background. But here is the basic story condensed into 4 minutes and 56 seconds.

For those of you that don’t like clicking videos in Tumblr (I don’t either. Not sure why…) The story basically goes like this:

Fat.
Unhealthy.
Depressed.
Depression leads to a tough breakup.
Inspiration.
Run.
Eat kind of healthy.
Run.
Lose weight.
Happy.

Enjoy the video if you watch. It took me like three hours.

Clarendon 5k / 23:49 & Clarendon 10k / 1:00:58

I signed up for the Clarendon 10k a while back, but a day before the race, Pacers decided to add a little twist.  

“You can run both races for the price of one!!  Get double the race series points!! Oh by the way the 5k is @ 8:20.  The 10k is @ 9:00.  The 5k finish is 1.5 miles away from the 10k start.  Oh yeah the 1.5 miles is uphill, a 300ft rise in elevation. Don’t be late or we won’t let you run the 10k!!  xoxoxo”

The fact that Pacers did this was awesome.  Anyone can just run a 10k.  But can you run a 10k after running a 5k as fast as you can??  Can you make it to the 10k starting line in time?  The gauntlet has been thrown!  Are you going to BRING IT?!?! It’s already been BROUGHTEN! … 

Now you could get to the starting line anyway you wanted to, but logistically I couldn’t work out a good plan.  Street closures, lack of street parking, Orange Line repair, etc.. so I decided to brute force it and run up the hill to the starting point.   Because let’s face it, success in doing it the hard way would make the feat that much more sweeter!  

So I ran the 5k as fast as I could.  It’s a really fast course, because you run down the Rosslyn Hill, but you never have to run back up it.  I really push it, and I get a PR on my 5k!  I’m really sucking wind at this point so I start walking up towards the 10k starting line.  I’ve got 15 minutes to do 1.5 miles, which seems like an eternity, but I’m really tired.  And it’s uphill.  I spot two girls running up the hill, trying to make it to the starting line.  This is all the inspiration I need to suck it up and stop walking and start running.  I shuffle up the hill.

Four blocks from the starting line, I see the massive 10k race horde.  Suddenly the starting horn erupts.  And even though I’m far to the left on the sidewalk, I’m running against stream with the 10k runners shooting past me.  In what seems like an instant, the last runner crosses the starting line a couple of seconds before I reach it.

I don’t think I make it in time but as a person is unhooking the mat, she waves in another late coming runner to hurry up and cross.  I follow that person over the starting line… and it’s on!!  I run, but slowly.  But it doesn’t matter, because all I have to do is finish.  I relax and I enjoy the day and enjoy the run…

I finish and as my reward I have to walk up the damn hill again because I parked at a 2hr meter and according to my watch I have around 13 minutes ‘til it expires.  I’m too tired to make a run for it so I walk/limp up the hill again knowing that I’ll probably have a parking ticket.  Arlington Parking Enforcement is crazy efficient.  I get to my car 30 minutes later and… no ticket!   Good times.

Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon / 2:02:52

Three levels of craziness.  Waking up at 5:30am for this on a Sunday morning was crazy.  My wife driving me to Mt. Vernon @ 6:00am was even crazier.  That f-ing bathroom line was the craziest thing ever.  I started in the line at 6:55 with race time @ 7:30.  I finished with my business @ 7:25 and ran to the start.

The race itself?  The plan was this:  Take it nice and easy for the first 9-10 miles at around a 10:00/mile pace, then if I somehow crossed the 10 mile point at ~1:30-1:35, to kick it up a notch and finish this thing under 2 hours by running as fast as I could for the final 5k.  I expected the first 10 miles to be easy and mostly they were except for a trip that occurred at mile 4.  I didn’t bleed… much.  Besides that, GW Parkway 10 miler v2.

I crossed the 10 mile point at 1:34:46, nice I thought to myself.  Under 2 hr half marathon is within reach, just do this, it’s a 5k, done many of these, no problemo.  Upon reaching National Harbor there was a steep hill that continued for a little less than a mile.  Somewhat unexpected…

Sucked the remaining energy right out of me.  Game over.  It didn’t help that there was a dirt/gravel path that stretched for a half a mile right after the hill.  At that point dreams of an under 2 hour half marathon long gone for another day, I shuffled my way to the finish, and was pleased with my new PR time.  Overall a great race and some pretty nice hardware!  

So I dreamt that I was auditioning for American Idol last night.  The lines coming out of my first ever office that I worked at 10 years ago were out the door.  As I impatiently waited in line, I felt as if it wasn’t even worth it, because Simon wasn’t a judge this season.  Then I worried how the Aerosmith dude would critique my singing.  Which led to the worry, oh fuck, I can’t sing.  ”Oh well, just another thing to cross off my to do before I die list, plus I can blog about it”.  So I finally get to the head of the line, which is not, it’s your turn to sing line, but it’s verification that you’ve signed up to be on the show by e-mail.  They don’t have my name on the list.  So I have to sing to the line people before I get scheduled to sing for the show.  But it’s their lunch break so they leave.  And never come back.  I leave for my hotel which is a very practical Holiday Inn, and realize my phone has been off.  My brother who dropped me off earlier has been calling me so I text him to meet me at the hotel lobby so we can get wasted as I bitch about the line people leaving.  I check myself in the mirror and I’ve got a bowl cut(wtf?).  The shock of having bangs wakes me up.  It’s race time!

Run For the Schools 5k / 26:19

This race was at 8:00am in Falls Church.  I had run the 9/11 5k the night before at 6:00pm and went out drinking afterwards.  I arrived at this race 5 minutes before start, and desperately had to pee.  Couldn’t make it to one of the portable johns, so I decided to grit through it.  So I was tired to begin with and had to use precious energy to not wet myself.  Hope you appreciate this one, schools!

Arlington Police/Fire/Sheriff 9-11 Memorial 5K / 24:15

This race was one of my favorites so far.  Was able to partake in the free beer afterwards, because unlike most of the other races I’ve ran, I didn’t want to throw up afterwards.  The bag pipes, the national anthem beforehand, and running towards that huge U.S. flag at the end all added to a unique experience.