Run, Baby, Run

I had a weekend. Again.

I've had such an eventful summer in so many ways. And this weekend was a good close to it.

I guess I'll start on Friday, my birthday. I ran westwood, got sushi, and cleaned the house for the evening. People started coming over in the early evening, and there were probably 50-60 people over at some time or another that night. It was really fun. A buddy of mine made drinks for girls all night with booze that a bunch of the guys chipped in and bought. I was really happy that everyone had a good time and that nothing shitty happened. There were no fights, sick people, or rowdies. Yet it was a really busy, drunken, great time. An old friend wound up showing up who I haven't seen in a few years, and it was actually a really good time catching up and having a few drinks.

Saturday morning was spent cleaning the house. It was in pretty bad shape, but with the three guys in the house, along with a few volunteers (thanks btw), it was clean by noon. I got out of the house and watched the Mariners home opener, then went to my parents house for my birthday dinner. It was a really great day. I realized something after dinner, something that's becoming a bit of a trend. Whenever I've overeaten in the last few weeks, I've immediately gotten sick to my stomach not even ten minutes after I've eaten. And it doesn't matter where, what kind of food, or anything like that. It's only when I eat in excess, which I love to do. My parents and friends were all very generous in getting me stuff for my birthday. I'm so damn lucky.

Today I ran a half marathon. I found out on friday that Jeff was running the harbour city half marathon in town, and I offered to join him. On a complete whim. I don't really know why, but sometimes I think that if I put to much thought into doing something, I'll never do it. So I registered, completely untrained and unprepared for what a half marathon actually is. I just thought, 'ahh, only 21km's. I can handle that'.

So this morning I crammed in the pasta that I'd made last night, looking for a last minute carb blast before heading down for the 820am start. I sort of overate, and didn't think anything of it, because my chief concern was to get plenty of energy. I knew that I'd be fine by racetime, which was like 2 hours away when I ate. I double checked by going to the bathroom twice before leaving, because having to go while running is deadly.

Anyway, the longest I'd ever run before today was 10km's, and I don't remember it at all. So I checked out the race course route. I was shocked. The route goes from one end of Nanaimo to the other, and then back again. That in itself almost made me sick. I'm a big numbers guy, so I decided that I would try to maintain a 5 minute/ km pace. I run westwood at a 4min/km clip, and I figured I could keep the 5min/km pace up 21 times in a row. Me and Jeff were going to run together as long as we could, but not wait if one was holding the other back.

We started at the front of the pack when the gun went, and the first km was kind of frantic, with people all around jockeying for position. Somewhere during the 2nd km I got the now familiar feeling in the depths of my stomach, and I needed to find a bathroom. Just great. Thank you. There were two bathrooms on the course, one at 9.5km's, and another around 18km's. So I winced for the next 7km's or so.

That being said, we did every km until the bathroom at a 5min/km clip. Perfect. After the bathroom, I hit the 10km mark feeling amazing. 52 minutes for the 10km, which included the bathroom break. So that was basically a perfect pace. At 13km, on the parkway heading back, I hit mike's version of heartbreak hill. It was grueling for me, and it was a topic of much discussion after the race. At 14 or 15 km (I don't know which, I was starting to feel some spins), I had to go to the bathroom again. Again, thank you. At this point I had several voices in my head telling me to stop, and since I wasn't listening to my ipod anymore, I was starting listen to my head. I didn't though. I wound up stopping a second time for the bathroom, and I also hit every water station twice to keep from dehydrating. I ran the second 10km in 53 minutes or so, and I was impressed that I could keep my 5min/km pace up for so long.

I ran the 21st km in 5 minutes, and finished around 1:50:00. Jeff had motored on since I had stopped at the first bathroom, and kept a perfect 5min/km pace, finishing at 1:45:00. Jeff wound up getting 2nd in our age category, and I got in fourth, although I chatted with 3rd place as I crossed the finish line with him. If it hadn't been for the bathroom breaks, I would have finished right next to jeff. Either way, we were both pretty stoked on what we'd done.

It was strange, normally I love listening to my ipod when I run. Yet I stopped the ipod after 2km's, and took off the earphones after 4km's. So I was carrying an ipod that I wouldn't use, and gels that I wasn't really planning on eating. So I ditched the gels, and carried the ipod along. It was a really cool experience, and I wonder what some training could have done for my time. But now I have a serious indication of what a marathon would be like. And I'm NOT ready for that yet.

Not a bad weekend to start off another year.

'Run around the same old town'