Cats Have 9 Lives, I have 9 LA Marathon Completions

I hate making excuses especially when I do not run well but after yesterday’s marathon I am not sure what I can say but I did complete another Los Angeles Marathon giving me a total of 9 straight LA marathon completions. I am all about finishing and I am all about the accomplishment but finishing is not always the sole goal. I took plenty of steps last year to ensure that I would come into this marathon not just in shape but in marathon shape because in previous years, I felt like I always took a break from running around December and really did not start my marathon training until mid January and no matter what, I felt like my overall fitness for the race was just not there so I changed that and trained a lot in December. I was primarily running trails, building up my legs and working on my endurance. I started off the year by running the Boney Mountain 21k trail race and I really felt like I had my marathon plan in gear so what happened? A hip injury three weeks ago on a simple run which lead me to sit out for three weeks and my first day of running was yesterday at the marathon and boy did it show.

I felt great overall in the morning. I felt like I hydrated well, my shoes felt good, and I even felt like my hip was all healed up. Of course I can never do anything easy so I stuck to the idea that I would run in a costume but instead of a costume I ran in a Michael Jackson wig which may or may not have played a part in my demise during the race. It seemed like the race started before I was even ready but I felt like I had stretched well and there really was not much to do but jump in the crowd.

I started off with a nice moderate pace but about two miles in, I felt like my legs were a little tight but I thought nothing of it. I made a stop at a porta pottie and stopped here in there to take some crowd pictures and then I put the camera away and tried to focus on the race but I just could not get into a groove. Around mile 7 I felt like I just did not have the right energy and my legs felt way too sluggish. The weather was perfect but the sun was started to shine and I was sweating a lot more than normal, especially with the wig under my hat. That should have been a sign for me to lose the wig but I was committed to the idea that I would wear it to the end and that is what I did.

Around mile 9, I decided to pick up the pace and turn on the ipod and I really started to get it going and I felt invincible but as we ran downhill into the 14 mile mark area, I felt that all two familiar twinge that you do not want to feel in my left quad so I immediately pulled to the side and tried to stretch and when I did, my calve began to cramp up. This is where the mental part of the marathon starts. I knew that I would have more trouble as the race progressed but I tried putting it out of my mind and keep running. The faster I tried to run the more the cramps came so I slowed more and more and before we hit rodeo I knew I would have to struggle to the finish line.

As we came up Santa Monica Blvd and mile 18 and 19 I felt like I could still make a push and finish with 4:20 but slowly but surely I was at a snails pace. Talk about a collapse. I had about 5 miles to go and at least 50 minutes left to at least come in around 4:30 and I could not overcome the cramping and fatigue. I know I should be happy to finish in 4:50 but for some reason I am really disappointed and makes the after race recovery seem that much harder but don’t count me out just yet. This race only drives me to come back again next year to correct the mistakes I made this time around. What lies ahead for the rest of the year is uncertain but for now, I will be living in the bathtub and spending more money on Epsom salt than food…

Marathoning really hurts..

Right Back at you in 2012

It has been a while since my last post. Over four months to be exact. 2011 was a rough year In terms of running. I think I spent most of the year battling nagging injuries and because of my stubborn nature, I chose to ignore all signs that I needed to rest instead of running races. My performances suffered and I became frustrated after each event. The last event I ran in 2011 was the Topanga Canyon Turkey Trot and I was overall pretty satisfied with my performance in the race but still I needed to take a break and I did.
I spent the first few weeks of December just relaxing then I decided to start cross-training more. I bought all kinds of exercise devices and equipment like resistance bands and I even bought an aerobic step which most laughed at. The goal for me was to rebuild myself by strengthening my legs and working on strengthening my core. I also registered for the Boney Mountain 21k which was titled as the hardest race in the Xterra trailrace series. I knew that it would be the first week of January and I knew that I would have good amount of time to train through December but I wanted to train smart and be efficient and not break myself down as I had done in the past.
I set an attainable goal for the Boney Mountain 21k and that was 3 hours. By setting the bar lower than my usually high standards, it took a tremendous amount of the pressure off of me and I felt more relaxed and calm before the race. I went into the race confident and ready because I had spent the previous 3 weeks just working out and not running at all. Everything I did involved leg building. As a runner, you sometimes forget that just running alone is not enough. Running as much as I have run over a nine year period have weakened my legs and joints and I really have done nothing to build them back up so I thought it was important to get back to reshaping and building me, the person then concentrate on the running after.
On the day of the race, I went out to Boney Mountain State park and just had fun. I took pictures while running, I walked when I had to, and I finished strong slapping high fives and skipping through the finish line two minutes shy of 3 hours. For the first time in a while I ran a race without putting a ton of pressure on myself and it felt good.
So now I am back full circle and the LA marathon is staring me in the face and for the 9th year in a row, I will be lining up at the start line, trying to keep my LA marathon streak alive. It always seems like the race comes so fast but for the first time in a long while, I felt like I was heading into the race in the best shape of my life but a week ago without little to know understanding of what happened, I came up with a bizarre hip flexor injury and now it is looking like I may have to change my goal for the race but I am one hundred percent going to run or walk the race.
I have also decided to raise funds for a charity that I felt could use some exposure and as if the injury was not going to make this race hard enough I felt like it would be fun to run the race in a costume. Why you ask, why not. My dad is the reason why I started running and when he passed 9 years ago the thing he reminded me of just about every other day was to go out and enjoy everyday like it is your last and for me the LA marathon is my race and my day to enjoy myself, smile, run, walk, and in the end celebrate completing the race one more year.

Sit tight because here we go…

On the Comeback Trail

For once, I have followed my own advice and listed to my body. I never thought it would happen but earlier this month, I skipped a 5k because I did not feel well enough. It was the first time I have allowed myself to miss an event and feel good about it. I have also been listening to my body. When I feel tired, I don’t run. I’ve had light and easy runs from work and on the weekends and I have been cross-training to build up my core and to strengthen my legs. I guess you can say I have been rebuilding myself from the ground up. Just like they rebuilt the six million dollar man. Getting over injuries take time and you really have to be patient.

I was most proud of my race performance on Thanksgiving at the Topanga Canyon Turkey Trot. Topanga has to be one of the toughest trails to run and it did not help that I was suffering from a cold. I guess it serves me right for jumping in the lake up at Lake Arrowhead at night the week before. All week I contemplated whether or not I needed to skip the race because I knew that I could barely manage running Topanga on a good day. I promised myself that I would wake up Thanksgiving morning and decide whether or not I would run the race and when morning came, I felt like crap but I also knew that I could at least go and give a good effort.

When I got to Topanga, it brought back memories from running the race the year before and from running the trails there over the summer. I have always left Topanga exhausted. That is just the nature of the trail. The 10k, which I was running, starts uphill for about 2 miles but it will feel like 4. I knew my legs and endurance were not where they needed to be for this race but my goal was to just finish the race. I did not care about time or looking good so I walked when I had to and ran when I had to. To tell you how hard it is, I started cramping at mile 3 and there was still 3 miles to go but I just took what my body gave me and I just enjoyed being out on the trail. The last mile, my legs cramped and cramped and cramped but I just slowly pushed to the finish line. Funny thing is, I felt like I could run another 3 or 4 miles.

I forgot to even start my watch for the race. I feel like I am finally getting back to the basics of running. I’m weaving my way back to the top but just one step at a time and one race at a time and it feels good.

My Sanity is My Insanity

I remember Mike Tyson saying crazy like “my Sanity is My insanity”. Whatever he meant, he understood it even if no one else understands it that is ok because it's Mike Tyson. How much information must you consume before you go on system overload? That is what I had to ask myself the other day. When I first started running in 2004, I was new to running in every possible way. I labeled myself a running idiot. The best thing about being a running idiot is that you know nothing but you think you know everything. From the first marathon to the second, I stumbled my way through races, escaping with black and blue toenails and quads that felt like someone had beat them with a baseball bat. Sounds horrible right? Wrong!

I had no clue as to what socks to wear, over-pronation, hydration, vo2 max and so on and that was the best part about it. I just put on whatever shoes I had and I went out and I ran. I ran in cargo shorts, swim trunks, it didn’t matter. Blinded and an infant in the game of running, I just went out and learned on the fly but I was starting to get greedy. I took a look around my living room the other day it resembled that of a running store. I had stacks of runner’s magazines and various books on running all my coffee table. Running shoes all over the place, race event flyers on my refrigerator, and race medals piled high on my end table. Too make matters worse I have a giant poster board photo of myself from my Saucony sponsorship talking about what else, running!

Over the last three years, I learned everything there is to know about hydration, 5k training, injury prevention, how to run faster, or how to be a better uphill runner. I have technical shirts, the dri-fit hats, the best socks, and what has it all done? Nothing! I sat around weeks before some running events, trying to calculate past running times, and negative splits, and what shoes to wear given the race, and whether I should run with my hydration pack or not. I studied the weather so I would know what the weather would be on the day of the race or at least try to estimate so I could assimilate the race and its affect it may have on me if it was hot or cold. I have done so much preparation and planning and plotting on how to run better but the simplest thing I forgot how to do is to just run like an idiot.

When I ran like an idiot, time didn’t matter. When I ran like an idiot, I ran from the back of the pack, the front, the middle, I just ran. If I came in 50th place or 20th place, the result was always the same and that was me crossing the line with a smile and finishing strong. Lately, I have shut down in a race because I calculated the odds of finishing within a certain time and when I realize I had no chance of capturing that time, I just called it and cruised in, unhappy and my spirit broken.

I am competitive, that I know but I did not go into running with the idea I was going to win the Boston marathon but I think I always remember that saying “no one aspires to be second” and then I have to remember that is not what running is about. It is about lacing up the shoes and heading out the door and ending up wherever you end up. I think I need to just take my Runner’s World magazines and running books and diaries and just throw them in the trash. I need to forget about everything I have read and everything I think I know and just go back to being the idiot I once was. Easier said than done right? We will see……

Jones Retires From Running!!!!

Yesterday, was the first time I’d ever questioned whether or not it was time for me to hang up my running shoes and switch to fishing or spending thousands on a high priced road bike and start wearing spandex and coned shaped bike helmets. How and why did this all cross my mind? Last year, I posted some of my fastest times in more than one running event. I got a PR in the LA marathon after previously running it seven times. I won top two or three in my age division twice at different 5k events and my first time running the Point Mugu 11k trail race, I was just minutes from coming in the top three in my age division. This year, I expected to just return with even more success but it certainly has been anything but success and yesterday, I started to wonder if my days as a running were all but gone.

After running the Point Mugu 11k trail race last year, I was sidelined from October until February of this year with a knee injury. The hardcore downhill running there just broke me down and I had to spend day after day hoping and wondering if I would bounce back and I did, completing another LA marathon while extending my streak of complete the race eight consecutive years but my time was nothing like that of my PR last year. I went on to challenge myself by running the Malibu Creek 22k trail race in May and I couldn’t have been happier with my performance there but since then, it was been a nightmare in terms of my overall performance and mood in every race I have completed. Yesterday, I returned to Point Mugu with a goal to get in the top 3 in my age division but after the race I was left wondering if my running days were behind me.

I started off the race with a quick sprint and some spring to my step type but within five minutes I seem like I was running in reverse. I realized as runners began to sprint by me, something was wrong. I tried to respond but my legs wanted no part of the incline and they seemed to be unprepared for the task at hand. It was at that point my competitive spirit and whatever edge I thought I had, was all but gone. I did not compete, I did not challenge myself and most importantly, I gave up. I found myself trying to understand what was happening to me while still trying to run while I felt like I was pulling a thousand pound safe. Around mile 3, I tried to push myself as hard as I could and I did. I began to make a move and I was starting to make up all the ground I had lost to several of the runners who sprinted past me. I knew that the killer 2 miles downhill to the finish line was where I did my best work but when I got to the downhill, I became incredibly frustrated and upset that runner’s refuse to move to the side which is a basic and common courtesy and understanding in trail running, especially on the single-track trails but yesterday’s most of the runner’s seemed inexperience as well as selfish and refused to move. I couldn’t run the way I wanted to run and with less than a minute to finish line, I stopped. I stopped on the trail and I walked. I walked to the finish line with no desire to do anything but get to a place where I could forget what just happened. I wanted to choke at least twenty of the runner’s who had block me from finishing strong but was it really their fault?

Upset, confused and disappointed, I thought maybe it was time for me to just throw in the towel and hang up my running shoes but then I realized something. I was thinking like all the other people who just decided to give up and all the people who have tried to encourage me to give up running because their running careers have ceased to exist. What happened to me? I had a bad race but this was not the first bad race I had had this year. I blamed all the other runners for clogging up the trail on the downhill but I knew the strategy to the race and that was to avoid this by getting head those slower runners. The race result was my doing and I have to take responsibility for that.

Last year when I was running PR’s and winning age divisions, I was also training better and I was prepared. This year I have played catch up with my training and I have refused to miss running events even when I knew I was in no condition to run them. The end result was just misery. I had come to expect to the best without putting in the work. Who did I think I was? I forgot that nothing in this world comes without hard work. I started skipping steps and I got exactly what I put in.

I think it is important to have failing experiences in life. It teaches us to work that much harder to overcome those shortcomings and to prove that you belong. Running is such a rollercoaster. One week you can be on top but in order to stay there you have to continue to put in the hard work and the effort in order to achieve your goals. It is funny, last year Point Mugu sidelined me for months with a knee injury this time, it sent me into an epiphany about my running career. Down and out is not who I am. I am going back to the drawing board because the best thing about a board is you can erase it and start all over again. Next race, I will be better, stronger, and ready to do what I do best, which is compete.

I have to thank Elizabeth for showing me that nothing comes without hard-work and for encouraging me to go back and train and put in the time to get back to where I was last year. She rocked the race yesterday by finishing first in her age division and she was the second female overall in the race. She is one of the best runners, male or female. Sometimes you have to take notes from the best in order to be the best.

You Are Not a Runner

The most debatable topic in the last year or so has been what defines a person as a runner? The topic has sparked a debate amongst those who claim they’re true runner’s which then means everyone else is just pretending so I decided to chime in the debate.

How did we get to this point where we started challenging who is a real runner and who’s not? I like the think this has all been brought on in the last three to four years. I started running in 2004 and since then, there seems to be a much higher interest in running. Last year, there were so many running events that I couldn’t keep track (no pun intended) which, only means one thing. More and more people have decided to go out and purchase a pair of shoes and started running but to those who call themselves true runners this is a bad thing. They do no like the larger crowds of people out at the running events and on the roads. According to statistics, running times in marathon’s across the nation have been considerably slower than those of running times in the 70’s, 80’s, or even the 90’s. The complaint is that there’s a mindset that is just to finish the race and what does time matter. Who are these complainers and what is their real beef? Who is to say they’re the authority on what classifies a person as a true runner.

I have finished eight marathons but none of them have been under four hours. Does that mean I cannot be categorized as a runner? Let me tell you what a runner is. Do you have to run in an organized running event to be a runner? No. All you need to be a runner is a passion and a desire for something that more than fifty percent of the country would say they’d rather jump off the bridge than to do. A runner gets up in the rain to run. They run when it’s 90 degrees, they run when it is 20 degrees. A runner runs without a watch or a mapped out route. A runner can go weeks without running but thinks about their next run each of those days they did not run. A runner runs when they are sick and they run through injury when they should be resting. A runner always wonders how much more they can do and how much faster they could have run. If you are a runner, you read just about anything with running in the title. Runners study other runner’s in hopes of gaining some new running points. A runner will talk to you forever about running in hopes to get you to join the world of running even if you have said you hated running hundreds of times.

We can go on an on but the message is no one person whether they are an elite runner, to the ten mile a week runner can set a rulebook on what a runner is. Runners come in all shapes and sizes and range in ages from 5 to 90 and some of us are fast and some of us are slow but as long as you are out there running, you can give yourself the title of runner….

Lace em up!

5 KO'd

It never ceases to amaze me just how hard running can be or maybe I should say just how hard running fast can be. Saturday, I lined up for my first 5k since May 15th. With just a little under 3 months, I knew I wouldn’t be able to run a PR in the 5k, one because I had just twisted my ankle the week before while trail running and two because I was running the Filipinotown 5k which in my opinion is the hardest 5k in Los Angeles. There are not a lot of people who can take a long break then jump up and start running a seven minute mile but for some reason I believe I could. That was my pride and arrogance but my body had other plans. I should have known better but I could not pass up the opportunity to prove I could run well at the Filipinotown 5k. History would say that I would not, given the fact that I ran poorly two years in row at that race and I was healthy.

When you run fast or attempt to run a fast pace, it takes time to get your muscles and body use to the pace. It takes at least 3 to 4 weeks just to build up that base of fitness that will help you to sustain running at a fast pace while not completely killing yourself by mile 2 of a 5k. I had none of that at the Filipinotown 5k and by the time we had hit the one mile mark, my body had already shut down and mentally I did too. My legs were so heavy that it felt like I was pulling boulders. If you have ever been in race where the wheels fall off as we say, it is no fun. People say, what’s the big deal? A 5k is nothing. Those are usually people who have never run a 5k or even attempted to run a mile.

There’s a huge difference between jogging, running, and racing. Anyone can jog a 5k, anyone can run a 5k, but racing is held for a small group of runner’s who sprint from the start until the finish line and at the end, they have nothing left to give. You’ve seen this people. They are usually heading towards the finish line when you are just approaching mile one. I am not one of them but I have done a considerable job of being able to hang right in that second pack of runner’s who straddle the line between 7 minute miles and 7:30 minute miles and it is hard. Damn hard!

Last year in July, I ran a 5k 3 weekends in a row. I was in such a great rhythm and my fitness level was at a point where I could sustain my pace throughout the race and I just felt like I could run a 5k every day of the week. Last weekend I was nowhere near that level of fitness mentally and physically but sometimes you have to throw yourself out there to measure exactly where you are. It’s not fun because you know you can do better and run better but there is no substitute for time, training, and fitness but you gain so much from being in a race where nothing feels right and nothing is going your way. You cannot obtain this type of experience by just training on your own. I hear so many people say they are not ready to run a race but to honest, no one is ever ready. The result is that you become a better runner and the hope is that you learn to battle back in a race when you have hit a rough patch. You learn how to adjust and how to run in conditions that are not ideal and the most important thing is that you development a hunger to come back for more.

During the Filipinotown 5k, I stopped a total of four times. I just could not keep my legs turning and whatever mental edge I thought I had, was all but gone. I mustered everything I could at the end of the race and sprinted towards the finish line. No matter how bad you feel, you have to find the inspiration and the desire to finish on a high note. Instead of completely hanging my head, I looked at all the positives. Just days before, I was limping around because of my ankle and I should have skipped the race but it takes more than a twisted ankle to keep me out of an event. I had to accept the fact that I would not have been able to race at a high level given all the factors I was up against and in the end, I finished in 24 minutes and considering that I stopped four times, I think that is pretty good. Now I feel like I am ready to race again. I wore off some of the cob webs and I am ready to lace up the shoes and race again at my next 5k in two weeks.

Forget Your Watch, Your Heart will tell you the time......