Running in the Rain

Well, I only ran 1 time during the week last week despite gorging myself all day Thursday. So I decided to do 4 miles at Town Lake today. I didn't go 'til around 3:00 because it was raining, and I was waiting for it to stop. Once I realized it was going to rain all day, I grabbed my coat and decided to run in the rain. Since I live in Northwest Austin, going down to Town Lake to run is my weekly treat. I enjoy running on the level trail of crushed gravel versus the slanted asphalt of my neighborhood. I also enjoy the natural beauty of the trail, sightseeing, and getting to see all of the other runners, walkers, and bicyclists. But today, I was relatively alone; I only saw a handful of other runners.

As I was driving down to Town Lake, I was thinking about why I like blogging. It really makes me more observant, especially of the little things. In my daily life, I feel like, for the most part, I am just "going through the motions." Through blogging, it seems as if I take more time to "smell the roses" while I look for and observe interesting things to either ponder or blog about. One of my favorite quotes by my uncle (who is also quoted in the title of my blog--but that is a story for later...much later) is, "The past is history, the future is a mystery, but the present is a gift from God. That is why it is called 'the Present.'" Lately, I seem to spend much more time in "the present" than I have in recent years. But aren't we always in the present? Even though physically we may be in the present, often our minds are in the future or in the past. Many times I'll be in a meeting at work either worrying about how I came across in a previous meeting or thinking of what I am going to present in the next meeting, or simply wondering when this damn meeting will end so I can go to lunch. Likewise, most of my runs, I seem to be counting down the miles hoping to get to the end so I can stop; I'd accelerate time if I could.

But lately, like today, I found myself enjoying the run, enjoying the tranquility of my surroundings, and enjoying the feeling of strength while running. I was enjoying the Present. I seem to be more aware of the Present and try to focus on living in it.

Bloated

When I arrived to work this morning, I received the usual Thursday morning "Taco Shack tacos at my desk" email. Taco Shack tacos are also referred to as "tortilla wrapped gold" at our office. There is nothing quite like starting the day with free tacos.

Some of our Finance colleagues from Europe were visiting the office today so we took them to lunch at Chuy's for Mexican food. For some reason, I don't think they have very good Mexican food in Slovakia, although they did say there was one restaurant called "El Diablo." I had previously told some of my coworkers about the rise and fall of the Thonghorn, and somehow our lunch conversation totally derailed regressing back to that topic. They thought it was a viable idea if I changed the name, made it a color other than burnt orange, and varied the shape slightly...stop encouraging me!! I had the chick-a-chick-a-boom-boom enchiladas which are truly a guilty pleasure. The only thing I hate about Chuy's is that you smell like it for the rest of the day.

When I returned, I tried mightily to stay awake during various meetings and a strategy session. Little did anyone know, that my strategy was not to go to sleep. I left work at 5:00 to make it downtown to Sullivan's Steakhouse for an awards dinner sponsored by some of our partners. The menu was as follows:

Appetizer: Smoked salmon, cream cheese, grilled shrimp, calamari, shiitake mushrooms (I was already full)

Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Filet Mignon with green beans, macaroni and cheese, and mushroom caps

Dessert: Cheesecake (and I had "another bite of cheescake" and another and another...)

Everything was delicious!! Unfortunately, I feel totally bloated and disgusting right now; I have probably gained 5 lbs today. The only good thing is that I didn't spend a dime on food. My plan is to wake up early and go for a run. We'll see what happens.

Death of a Thonghorn

Although my prior "Thonghorn" post was intended as a joke, the more I pondered it, the more I wondered if it was a commercially viable idea. Could this be the part-time opportunity that I have been searching for to wean myself off Corporate America? The serendipity of it all made me think that it was fate; I just knew that I was meant to peddle women's undergarments in the shape of a bull's head.

I immediately initiated a "Thonghorn" search on the internet with no significant hits. The lack of search results encouraged me further, so I searched for domain names. To my dismay, thonghorn.com was already taken, but it was registered in Australia. Certainly, this couldn't have anything to do with my ingenious idea, and besides, Texasthonghorn.com was still available. I found a contract lingerie manufacturer in Los Angeles and was ready to pack my bags to ink a deal. I was already expanding my product line to include a Thonghorn bikini and other Texas schools such as the SMU Mus-thong and the Texas Tech "Panty" Raider. But most of all, I was eagerly anticipating the model search which, in my mind, resembled the recent Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search and reality television series. And my target market? A never-ending flow of freshman sorority girls, their boyfriends, and overzealous Texas Longhorn football fans trying to relive/prolong their youth, both men and women alike (present company included).

Luckily for me, I have a friend who is an intellectual property attorney, so I asked him what he thought about the idea. He said that I could not use the likeness of the Texas Longhorn silhouette if it in any way alluded to the University of Texas. Well, that kind of defeats the point. I then asked if Licensing was a possibility, and he said that this was a prohibited item and highly unlikely that it would be approved. He probably thinks I am a moron.

Well, I let my enthusiastic optimism get the best of me, and it temporarily blinded me from reality. Needless to say, I was bummed all day long. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Maybe I should stick to running.

Back in the Saddle

I went down to Town Lake and ran 4 miles this morning which is the first time I have run since the Half Marathon. Before I left, I performed Polar's OwnOptimizer fitness test which is "a modification of a traditional orthostatic overtraining test," according to the s625X manual (whatever that means). I really don't think I need to worry about "overtraining," but was interested in what the results would show. My baseline is a 2 and the results were a 3--"Your test heart rates are higher than average. You may have exercised intensively in the previous days....other sources of stress, the beginning of a fever or an attack of the flu can result in the same kind of response." Well I haven't run since last Sunday (6 days ago), so maybe it's the lack of exercise and all of the Mexican food that I have treated myself to this week that have caused the increased heart rate. Could I still be recovering from a run 6 days ago?

It felt good to run, I ran 4 miles in 43 minutes which is actually pretty fast for me. And, as I mentioned in my inaugural post, I think my watch is off by 5%. So really, I calculated that I ran 4.2 miles at just under a 10.5 minute/mile.

I know that I am slow, but I am also at least 40 lbs overweight. Although, I have lost about 10 lbs from 4 months ago, I still have a ways to go. Initially, I was disappointed at the lack of weight loss. I was running almost 20 miles a week, and thought the weight should come off faster than that even though it took a good 10 years to put it on. But, I didn't want to sabotage myself. My goal was to complete a half-marathon. It was not (necessarily) to lose weight; however, I knew that weight loss would be a by-product of all the running. Now I know that my body composition is changing from fat to muscle and that I am eating more carbohydrates to sustain the mileage, so my weight loss should be slow and steady...kind of like how I run.

Mara-thong

I had a Freudian slip today while doing a search for "marathon" on Google. I accidentally typed "marathong" instead; apparently, a lot of others have done the same. I call it a Freudian slip because a few months ago while I was at the gym, a young lady walked by wearing Texas Longhorn shorts. They were the old school type "wind shorts" with the Longhorn on the butt. They were white with a bright orange Longhorn, and because she was fair-skinned, it almost looked like she was ONLY wearing the Longhorn which closely resembled a thong. I immediately thought I was on to something...the Thonghorn. Would you buy one?

And the Thonghorn was born... 

Adjectives

My last entry about my half-marathon experience was my first creative writing attempt since high school or maybe it was middle school. My high school experience is but a distant blur since that is when I was introduced to libations and proceeded to get drunk every weekend with the exception of the year that I was holed up at a God forsaken place called military school.

I am truly left brain dominant and very analytical-minded. I really don't have a creative bone in my body; I leave that up to the marketing folks. Did I mention I am a CPA? That probably explains a lot, but I am not used to using adjectives unless they are words like "accretive," "profitable," or "risky." So I was very surprised to see two comments on my inaugural post saying that I should be a writer. Of course, they were probably just being kind, and little did they know, that they would encourage the banter. Thank you for all of the kind words.

Lately, I have found myself thinking of topics and experiences that may be interesting, or at least mildly amusing, for me to blog about. So bear with me as I dust off the right half of my brain and exercise my mind. My blog will be my mental half-marathon; hopefully, it will get better, easier, funnier, and maybe even more profound with time and "training."

By the way, this is hard work. It took me over 2 hours to write my first entry and another half hour to make it more blog-like, adding pictures (I still can't figure out how to paste them in the text vs. a separate post) and links. If you are an OG and prefer my writing Gangsta style then click here (I was rolling laughing). Also, check out this link...for men "who will accessorize anything."

My First Half Marathon

In early October, my employer offered a "train for a 10k" class at the company's fitness center sponsored by RunTex. At the time, I weighed about 225 lbs and generally felt disgusted with myself. So I thought, what the hell. It was convenient, got my fat arse out of bed early, taught me valuable stretching exercises, and really pushed me to the limits, especially on the interval training days (and all for $25). Some days I thought to myself, "Am I actually paying for this" and had recollections of military school. This class ultimately culminated in my Turkey Trot run on Thanksgiving. I originally thought this was a 5k, but (to my dismay) later found out it was 5 miles and was a little apprehensive. However, I finished the race in 55 minutes which I thought was pretty good since I really only started running about 6 weeks earlier (thanks to my coach, Donnie); it was definitely a confidence booster.

Soon thereafter I happened to exchange an email with an old friend, Patrick, who lives in Houston. I hadn't seen him in a couple of years since I moved back from Houston to Austin. Patrick sent me a link to his blog which was entitled "Musings on the Marathon." Had Patrick run a marathon? I immediately emailed him to ask all of the questions that were running through my head. He said that he decided to run a marathon on his birthday and had pictures of himself on his blog. He looked great and mentioned that he had lost nearly 50 lbs. I immediately decided that I wanted to continue to run, and he was my inspiration (by the way, we are the same age...actually he's 3 days older). In late November, I was in Houston for my brother's engagement party, and I met up with Patrick for dinner. He looked like he did in high school, and later, when we went to Baker St. Pub, he got carded!! It was like running erased several years off of his face and body (which further solidified my resolve to run). Shortly thereafter, during a telephone conversation, Patrick suggested that we run the Freescale Half Marathon in Austin in mid-February.

Fast forward to Saturday, February 12th, the day before the half marathon. I had dinner with Patrick and his family, strategically parked the car near the finish line (San Jacinto and 18th street), and then watched The Notebook with my brother and his fiance. I was hoping that this "chick flick" would sufficiently bore me into a lethargic stupor so that I would go to sleep. Unfortunately, it didn't work, not because the movie was riveting (although it wasn't bad), but rather because I was extremely anxious. I literally did not sleep all night long, and at about 5:30 a.m. I started to hear heavy rain and thunder outside by bedroom window. Cynically (insert evil laugh or JMVC's Krusty imitation here), I was actually hoping that they would cancel the marathon; I felt awful.

At 6:30 a.m., as I waited for my friend Sara to pick me up (she ran with me...at least at the beginning), I found myself cutting holes in trashbags as disposable, makeshift raincoats. All the while, I was getting more anxious since she was running late, and the race started in 30 short minutes. I contemplated borrowing my brother's truck and driving myself, but soon I reached her on her cell phone. When she arrived, she forgot to put on deodorant and needed to borrow mine, she needed to pin her bib on her shirt, and needed to attach her time chip to her shoe. Normally she is very prepared and organized, but this really annoyed me because I was so tense and we were running so late.

Luckily, the horn for the start of the wheelchair racers blasted as we were walking through the parking lot to the starting line. We made it with 5 minutes to spare, but then, of course, Sara had to go to the bathroom. In retrospect, I don't know what would have been worse, stressing while waiting for Sara or being early and anxiously waiting in a crowd of 11,000 nervous runners...besides we missed the rain.

As we started the run, I immediately shed my garbage bag due to the heat and humidity. I am used to running my long runs in 40-50 degree weather, and it was already about 69 degrees with 100% humidity; I knew I was in for a long run, literally. Sara ran with me for about the first mile, but then resumed her normal 10 minute/mile pace leaving me to fend for myself. I turned up the volume on my Dell DJ and did some people watching as runners passed me by while trying to keep my mind on anything but how tired I was due to the lack of sleep.

Before I knew it, I was at mile 4. Because I was so far back and so many runners had hit the mile 4 water station before me, it was annihilated. The workers couldn't pour water fast enough into the paper cups. One woman just grabbed the gallon jug and started drinking out of it; I was amazed, appalled, and amused all at once. It was also about this time that I decided to have my first and only Clif shot that Patrick gave me. I couldn't open the damn package and had to pull over and walk while I opened it with my teeth. It was pretty thick, and I almost gagged so I am really glad Patrick told me to take it with water.

My Polar s625x showed my heart rate at nearly 180 bpm which was about 20 beats higher than normal at this distance. Was it due to the heat, lack of sleep, adrenaline and anxiety, or the caffeine in the Clif Shot? I didn't know, but what I did know is that I can normally only sustain 180+ heart rates for a limited time, and I was only barely passed mile 4. So at mile 5, I started to walk consistently every time my heart rate approached 180. I would walk for 45-60 seconds until my heart rate recovered to the 155-160 range and then would resume running. One other thing about my Polar s625x. At mile 1, it showed .95 miles, and, by the end of the race, was about half a mile behind. I guess I need to manually calibrate it.

The crowds that lined the course shouting for family members and generally cheering runners on, were extremely helpful and motivating. It was difficult to walk while someone was cheering for you (although I succeeded). Some people would even yell out my name which initially shocked me, but then I realized my name was printed on the race bib. Before I knew it, I had run down Shoal Creek and 45th street. As I passed Avenue B on 45th street, I looked down the street and eyed the house that I lived in during college. The dull yellow two-story house looked exactly as I remembered it as if time stays still near campus. I couldn't help thinking that that place must be a sh*thole on the inside due to over a decade's worth of partying college students living in it; if those walls could talk (but I digress).

As I turned on Duval from 45th street I passed two casualties: one had bloodied nipples which were bleeding through his white tanktop and the other was sitting on the curb as the safety patrols took her pulse at her wrist. I could see the 11 mile sign and knew that I only had 2.1 miles left to go, but instead of wishing it were over, I tried to soak it all in. I tried to live in the present and realize that this was the moment that I had trained for over 4 months, and that it was fleeting. It would be over soon enough whether I liked it or not.

Physically, I felt pretty good. My legs felt strong, and I had no aches, pains, or blisters. My only concern was my elevated heart rate. I decided that I was going to run the rest of the way without walking, then at about 11.8 miles I had to rethink that plan, decided to walk for .2 miles and run the final 1.1 miles. I could see Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium and knew I was close; one of the crowd yelled "you can smell the finish line from here." Suddenly, my cell phone that I had in my pocket rang, and it was Patrick's wife. She asked if I was with Patrick, and I told her that he was probably about an hour in front of me and that I could see the mile 13 marker. As I approached the finish line, I saw Patrick's wife and sister cheering me on as I kicked it up a notch for the remaining 50 yards.

As I crossed the finish line 2 hours and 37 minutes after I began this journey and they placed the finisher's medal over my head, I realized that I had done it. I had set a seemingly impossible goal (at least 4 months ago it seemed impossible) and had accomplished it. I created my own "peak life experience" and can now say that I have run a half marathon...I am a half-marathoner!! What's next? The possibilies are limitless.

Luckily, we missed this since we got to the start just-in-time.