What about the Boston Marathon?

When you first start out running, your goal can be to just get in shape or to try something new. There are thousands of us out there who had running a marathon as a goal. That goal then shifted from running a marathon to running a faster time in the marathon then running one of the five most talked about marathons; Boston, NY, Chicago, London, and Berlin. I argue that the NY Marathon is the best but there are those who say Boston remains the best and most prestigious. Boston is in fact the oldest marathon in the country and it’s well known as one of the hardest to get into because of its crazy qualifying times. So far in my short running career, I have run the LA marathon seven times and the NY Marathon once and people keep asking me about Boston. I really have no desire to run Boston and I’ve never felt compelled or even challenged to try to qualify. My blog today is about another race that comes in as the 2nd oldest race in the country and that is the Palos Verdes Marathon and Half Marathon. This is a race that no one talks about but I feel that it deserves to be talked about because of its long history and challenging course.

I wondered how a race that has been going for 45 years remains a small but consistent running event and after 2 years of running the half marathon, I realized why. It is so damn hard!

I registered to run the Palos Verdes half marathon in May 2008; I was unfamiliar with the location of the race, so as I approached what I believed the starting area, I parked and decided to follow a guy who looked to be running towards the start. I ended up losing the guy and had no idea where the start was and I was already ten minutes late so I made a judgment call and hopped in the car and went back home. So when May of 2009 rolled around, I was prepared to be early and ready to run the race. This time around, I found the start and I quickly found out that I was not ready for this race. I had been off from running for about 3 months because of a nagging back injury but I needed to get ready for the LA marathon that would be on memorial day for the 1st time ever. Why I chose the palos verdes half marathon as a comeback race made no sense.

All I knew was that the race was known as the rolling hills marathon and half marathon and that is exactly what it was. I started off great but who doesn’t. A mile and a half into the race this guy I know, shouts out to me, “here comes the hill I was telling you about”. I was none to enthused because it wasn’t a hill, it was a mountain. That hill killed me. I stopped a quarter of the way up and had to walk. When I finally reached the top, I struggled to regain any kind of rhythm but soon after my misery, I realized we were steadily running downhill and for the next four miles, I went flying downhill. It quickly hit me as we approached mile 6 that we would be looping and going back up the hill I just shot down and my confidence was shattered. For six miles, I battled the incline but it got the best of me. I walked in shame then ran in pain. I managed to suck it up the last 2 miles but as I dashed towards the finish line I cramped up and barely made it one minute shy of 2 hours.

I vowed to return and run Palos Verdes again in 2010 to get some redemption for my previous performance. Well this past Saturday, I returned to the race and a bit of nostalgia kicked in from the start of race as well as my stomach which seemed to have its own fireworks show going on inside of it. I knew this would only add to the difficulty of completing a race that slapped in the face the year before but I am a true runner and I take the bad with the good so I sucked it up. I anticipated the giant hill a mile and half in and just like last year, I ran it thinking I could conquer it but my legs and stomach said please stop and walk and that’s just what I did. I knew that I had miles of downhill coming so I paced myself and when the downhill came, I ran it like a bat out of hell. I began to get into a groove and did my best to ignore my stomach as it cramped and growled but as we began to go uphill towards the turn around at mile 6, I spotted a porta pottie and had no choice but to stop and relieve the pressures in my lower intestine. You get the point.

After the turn around it was the uphill battle that I so despised. I ran then stopped. Ran then stopped. I certainly was not the only one. This is where I began to realize this was a race that consumed any and everyone who ran it. Every person running looked drenched from head to toe. I had witnessed at least four or five people who had horrible falls including an older woman who suffered terrible bruising to her face. I saw more ambulances going up and down than runners. It was at this point that I realized I would just do my best and not worry about my finishing time. I pushed from mile 9 until the end of the race and finished in 1:56 and I was exhausted. My running shirt, shorts, and hat were soaked. I looked like someone dumped a Gatorade bucket on top of me. Runners all around acknowledged one another with head nods and some came up to me to congratulate me on a great run. Runners at this race understood one thing, and that was, it is not about your time, it was about surviving and finishing the race.

I now realize why there are only 1100 runners in this half marathon. People usually sign up for events where they can get a PR or there’s some gimmick that comes along with the race; well I believe the people who run this race, run it because like Boston, it is prestigious as well. Its known to kick your ass!

Keep running Alive!

I Eat Hills For Breakfast

There are those who run right pass hills and any challenging terrain, then they get into running events with a hill that resembles an anthill and they fall to pieces. After crawling up any hill, they’re unable to recover. In fact, that usually becomes the talk of most; how there were too many hills. If you plan to be a successful runner, then avoiding hills is not the answer. Hill running is vital to the success for building endurance as well as building a solid foundation.

I’ll be honest, hill running hurts and here’s the good part, everyone suffers on hills. Why, because hills are unpredictable and they make it hard to get into a good steady rhythm. Most runners attack hills the wrong way. I remember thinking I had to run all out when I got to a hill but as soon as I got to the top, I had zero energy left and all I could do was place my hands on my knees and beg for an oxygen tank. Hill running should be done in moderation. Expecting to be able to run from zero elevation to 375 feet with ease in a day or two just will not happen.

The idea is moderation, not exasperation. Start by running slow and try to keep a steady pace. The idea is to build your endurance. Depending on the incline of the hill you may find that you have to stop and walk. In the beginning, making it to the top of whatever hill you are running should be your goal, not how fast you can run the hill or how you look when you get to the top. After making it to the top, take a deep breath then walk down because that give you time to catch your breath and recover. It’s also easier on your knees to walk down instead of running downhill. People talk about running downhill and loving it. If you value your shins, and quadriceps, you’ll walk. Try to mix philosophies by sprinting up hills from time to time. The variations of training styles help activate different muscle groups, which is something that is very hard to do while running on flat surfaces.

Once you’ve worked up a good hill training regiment, you should begin to see results when you return to running on flat surfaces. Hills build toughness and character and increase your endurance like you would not believe. So many runners talk about being stuck in a rut in terms of their finishing times in their 5k, 10k, half marathon, or marathon. If you’re seeing little to no results, then look at your routine and make some changes.

Hills don’t bite, but your lack of hard training will…..