Being thankful....

Ok, so it is not Thanksgiving, but I'd like to list the people and things I am most thankful for in 2006...

• Hava - my best friend, lover, and wife...enough said.
• Our families - thank you for all of your support and help with everything, especially the wedding. You made our wedding very special and we'll never forget it.
• Thon - by my late 20's, I thought I had found already found all of my close friends. I didn't think I had room for anyone else, let alone be lucky enough to find one. Thon proved me wrong. I am thankful to him for coming into my life and for being a confidante, running partner, and last but not least, a friend that I can fully trust and rely on. He is also welcome to show up at our house unexpectedly any time he wants, as long as he brings an alcoholic beverage to share.
• Richard - I can virtually ditto what I said about Thon, and in addition Richard and his wife Stephanie are such a wonderful couple to all of us. Even with Richard being sick, they met up with us at Mi Madre's every Saturday after our long run..and also came to Dallas to support us when we ran our marathon. They are truly selfless people, and I am thankful for having them in my life. Richard will be running for the first time in many months on January 1st...I can't wait until he can join us again on our runs!
• Carrie - she and I go back a few years, and I am thankful for her unwavering friendship and support..along with her ability to put her mind in the gutter as much, or more, than I do. I can always rely on her to laugh at my raunchy jokes even if no one else does. Carrie, aren't you glad we decided to join Gazelle's together? I can't imagine if we didn't!! Oh, and thanks for being my Running Wife, even if you put out for Shawn instead of your Running Hubby. I don't blame you though, he is a great catch.
• Amy - she makes our runs more entertaining than they would be without her. She is spunky, sweet, and an incredible runner! We don't do a too much together outside of running, but she still manages to add to my life, and I am thankful to her for that.
• Gilbert - my coach...he is one of the most decent and nicest people that I know. Even when I am not running with Gazelles, I am always proud and thankful to be able to call myself one. Thanks Gilbert, for everything!
• All of the Gazelles (even the ones I don't know) - Alex, Frank, Erine, Venus, etc. etc. etc....thanks for keeping the Gazelle spirit alive and for making the organization such an elite one to be part of. It makes me look good.
• Ranger, Shayna, Siskel, Coe, and Peeper - The pets that live in our zoo (some call it a house too). They add so much to our lives, I can't imagine not having them to welcome us every time we come home. I also can't imagine not having to clean wads of pet fur from our floor every week, it just wouldn't be the same.
• Our house - we love our house, we feel truly blessed to live in it. It is going to be great to start our family in it. Just not yet.

I wish a very happy, healthy, and safe New Year to all of my family and friends!

Putting the OTH in my BROTH

When I first started this blog way back when (ok, two months ago), I decided to call it "Mike's BROTH", or Mike's Blog of Running and Other Things Happening. I recently realized that all of the blogs I have written have all been about Running, and not Other Things Happening. So today I have decided to put the OTH in my BROTH.

First off, if there is any blog that I would love to emulate, it would be Carrie's Tritobefunny blog. I really enjoy reading her blog not only for the running recaps (which I co-star in on occasion), but also because she truly knows how to put the OTH in her BROTH. She has published some really great insight in her blogs, and has a very eloquentl style of writing it. She has a pretty large readership level based on the amount of comments left, so I'm obviously not the only one who sees this. Now, I will say that even if she does have better writing skills than me, I do have some skills that chicks love..like nunchuck skills and bowhunting skills.

With that said, I would like to give a recap of the 2006 year. This has been an amazing year, with many ups and few downs. In January, was just getting acquainted with my newly diagnosed stress fracture resulting from overtraining after the Chicago Marathon. It was pretty depressing not being able to run, but what made everything all better was the fact that I had an amazing girlfriend (my Havalah) who supported me and helped me stay positive. We had started dating in September 2005, so we were a relatively "new" couple. However, after a wonderful trip to Vegas in December, we both new that we had found our soul mates.

I decided in early January that Hava was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We had only been dating for 4 months, but this was a situation where you have two mature adults who found the right person and were in the right time of their lives to make this kind of decision without it being forced or too quick. We were meant for each other..and that is just plain fact.
I asked Hava to marry me in late January (she said yes, of course), and on the same exact day we signed a contract to have a house built in Southwest Austin. It was really exciting for us! After doing a lot of great research, Hava found a great place for us to have our wedding and we set a date for September 10th, which happened to be the day before the 1 year anniversary of our first date! Needless to say, both sets of family were ecstatic. Both Hava and I had been engaged in the past to non-Jew's, so the fact that we ended up marrying Jewish was a God-send for our parents.

Over the next 7 months, we sold my house (one of the "downs" of the year, but I won't go into that), I moved in with Hava temporarily, and finally we moved into our new house in early August! And then we had our wedding on September 10th. The wedding was a wonderful experience and we felt so lucky to have our close friends and family join us for it. We then took 2 weeks off, the second of which we spent in Costa Rica, which was a great adventure.

Life has been great since then, and I was even able to get a 5-minute PR in Dallas after such a busy year (sorry, I couldn't help talking a little about running!).

No insight in this blog, but a "brief" recap of the great year that I have had. :-)

Dallas White Rock

So I slacked off the past couple of weeks on the blog, but taper weeks aren't all that exciting anyway.

The marathon FINALLY arrived on Sunday. Hava and made the trip up to Dallas on Saturday in a caravan with Thon, Venus, Amy and her husband Perry, Carrie and her fiance Shawn, and Richard and his wife Stephanie.

We headed to the expo right when we got there and got our packets, etc. I bought a new gel belt to hold the plethora of nutrition I needed for the race. They say not to try anything new before a big race, but I felt pretty safe with the belt. Hava also bought some stuff, and we even got some free Clif Shot block flavors, Margerita and Pina Colada!! I thought they tasted pretty good (from the free samples), and they had extra caffeine and sodium in them.

I was feeling pretty good about the race. My legs felt good, I was in good spirits, and my running buds (Thon, Venus, and Amy) were all feeling positive that we were going to all have a good race. The goal was 3:30. I felt this was reachable, but only if everything was perfect. Otherwise, I knew I'd be happy with a PR, which would be anything faster than a 3:44 marathon.

We had a nice (but slightly cold) dinner at MoMo's on Saturday night. We only could get the patio tables, but they were somewhat heated by gas heaters. Richard was nice enough to let me use his jacket even though all he had was a short sleeved shirt. What a guy!

Race morning was cold, but also slightly humid. This wasn't the greatest sign for me, because even when it is pretty cold, the humidity seems to effect my ability to regulate my temperature. Thon was completely in the zone since we drove up, but as we were walking to the race he loosened up a little bit and cracked a smile or two. We did our last minute prep in the port-o-pottie's, and it was about time to start!! Richard, Stephanie, and my lovely Hava had plans to see us in 5-6 different areas and cheer us on.

We started with the 3:30 pace group. I felt really good, but I told myself I would fall back as soon as I felt like I should slow down. Well, that didn't take too long. After 3 miles, I decided that if I was going to make it, I would have to take the pace to an 8:15-8:30 average. So I slowly lost sight of Amy, Venus, Carrie, and Thon. It didn't bother me, because I wanted to run my own race.

The miles went pretty quickly at first, I definitely felt the humidity, but I got water at every water stop and continued to eat nutrition every 3-4 miles. Our cheering squad was excellent and reliable, they were there to cheer me about every 4 miles. It was so great to see Hava's smiling face...it kept me strong. Around mile 13 I ended up passing up Venus. She looked like she was struggling (which it turns out she was, I'll explain later). I said a quick hello, and kept going. By mile 15, a few little doubts starting creeping into my mind. I was slowing down a bit, reading 8:30-8:40 minute miles on my watch. I wasn't feeling horrible, but also not feeling strong. I told myself to stay strong and not stop, and most importantly not be a big wimp. The biggest mental game that kept me going was continuously telling myself that all of the months of training led up to this race, and it would all be for naught if I didn't actually use the strength from this training to make it throught the race. I kept on trucking....

Mile 20-21 was interesting because it was a series of small inclines and hills. I was worried they would sap my strength, but they actually did the opposite. It was very refreshing to use the different muscles necessary to climb inclines vs. the ones I was using on the flat White Rock Lake area. In fact, I felt a surge of strength and was able to pass a good amount of people. This was a first for me..to find energy reserves in the second half of a marathon. Once the course flattened out, I started to mentally map out the rest of the race. I couldn't believe I had only 5 miles to go..but knew from experience that they would be a LONG 5 miles.

What made things crappy was the half-marathon joined back into the race around mile 21. They started an hour after the marathon, so the people that were running when I met up with them were the slower ones, and in fact many of them were walking. What made this an issue is that many of these people had no freaking clue about race courtesy and were walking on the left hand side of the street instead of keeping the left side for the faster runners. I was already on the verge of having calf cramps, so having to avoid these people only made things worse. One wrong move and I would have been on the ground. Luckily, I only had a few near collisions and made it through unscathed. I also almost ran into an EMS vehicle that a police officer decided to let through. It didn't have its emergency lights on, so I got slightly annoyed. However, a man right in front of me got much more than slightly annoyed and screamed "No, no, no!!!" at the officer, and whaddya know the officers stopped the EMS vehicle and let us pass. I was relieved not to have to stop, but pretty surprised.

Around mile 24, the 3:40 pace group caught up to me. I was starting to feel pretty crappy by this point. However, I decided that I was going to stick with the 3:40 pace group as much as I could. I knew a Personal Record was on the line if I slowed down much more. So I stuck with them, and dug really deep to keep moving. This was my 5th marathon, and the first time I was truly mentally strong enough to push myself beyond what my body thought it could do. It is hard to describe with words though, but it was a big mental barrier that I was able to overcome.
At mile 25, which actually was mis-marked, I somehow got the strength to speed up. I passed the 3:40 pacers and never looked back. I was determined to stay strong for the remainder of the race and finish with a sub 3:40 race time.

The last 1+ miles were ridiculously long. I kept on expecting the finish line to show up in the horizon, but it just never seemed to appear. FINALLY, I got to the 26 mile marker. I was feeling like crap, but the thought of it finally being over kept me going strong. I suddenly came upon Thon right then. It was surprising because I thought he would have finished by then, but I said "Thon, let's finish strong". That was enough for him to pick up the pace with me. He cracked a joke with about 1/10th of a mile to go with "You wanna hold hands?". I just laughed and smiled, and was really happy I was finishing the journey with such a good friend. We crossed the finish line, and gave each other a big hug before we got our medals and finisher's shirts.

Final time, 3:39:26....a 5-minute PR for me. Along with just being ecstatic with finishing, I felt like I ran a great race overall. It was the first marathon that I was truly able to stay in the zone and stay mentally strong. Everyone feels like shit at some point in a marathon, but being able to keep moving even when you do is what separates a well-run marathon from a not so well-run marathon.

As for everyone else:

Amy: ran a 3:28 and looked like she did an easy 5k
Carrie: 3:29 (PR by 6 minutes!!!!) and ready to go for a 3:20
Thon: 3:39..an official PR (had an unofficial PR of 3:37 at Freescale). He bonked towards the end, but I am still really proud of him for having such a great time. If I had bonked, I would not have gotten even close to a 3:39. It was an honor finishing the race with him, and I won't ever forget it.
Venus: 3:45:42- she qualified for the second time for Boston by 17 seconds. It turns out she had foot problems and was running in pain for about 20 miles of the race...yet she still was able to qualify. She is a BAD ASS in my book. Very impressive.
Shawn: Shawn ran a 1:59 half-marathon, congrats!!

Stephanie, Richard, Hava, Perry, my mom, dad, sister, and Kyle: Thank you so much for your support on the run..it meant a great deal to me! I love all of you!!

What's next?? I dunno, but I'm relaxing for a little bit before I even think about it!

Recap for the past 7 days -- and a PR for Mikey!

Thanksgiving was great, and what made it even better was that I am tapering now. Tapering during the Thanksgiving holidays is much better than being in the middle of training!

I'm feeling ok this week, I am having some allergy issues, but I am hoping they will go away with the impending cold front. I am planning on a very restful taper week next week. I am going to focus on getting lots of sleep and eating the right kinds of things. I should probably have this kind of focus all of the time, but you only live once, right?

A recap of my running since my last blog:

Wednesday, November 22nd: I met up with Thon, Amy, Carrie, and a few other people to run the Austin Turkey Trot course. Carrie was the race director (which, by the way, was a resounding success), so she wanted to preview the course. Total miles: 7.3

Thursday, November 23rd: I PR'd in the Ft. Worth Turkey Trot 5k!! My time was 20:40, which averaged around a 6:39/mile pace. I ALMOST placed in the top 3 in my age group. I was number 4, about 30 seconds off from number 3. I couldn't have run it any faster though, so I won't beat myself up. I beat my old PR by 1 minute and 50 seconds, not too shabby! I also ran the 10k run with Hava right after my 5k. I was really proud of her, this was the most mileage she has ever done in a race! It was a tough and pretty hilly course, but she was able to finish strong (with a little "dig deep" prodding from me!). Total miles: 9.3

Saturday, November 25th: I ran on the Mineral Wells Trailway, which is a "rails to trails" trailway..i.e. the trail used to be train tracks. It is a neat ~20 mile trail point-to-point from Weatherford to Mineral wells. It is pretty scenic and has mile markers. I woke up pretty late and the weather was pretty humid, so I ended up only doing 5 miles out and 5 miles back for a total of 10 miles. On a positive note, I was able to negative splits. Total miles: 10

Tuesday, November 28th: Ran 3.2 miles in my neigborhood. It did NOT feel easy, even though that was the intent. I blame the weather and my allergies. Total miles: 3.2

Wednesday, November 29th: I joined the Gazelles for a 7-mile fartlek run. We warmed up for 2 miles and then did 4 miles of 1-minute fast, 1-minute recovery. It was tough for me, once again I blame it on the weather and allergies. I still think it was a successful run overall, I was able to do sub-7's during the 1-minute fast intervals. Ran in my new Fila Sanctuary III's, they felt just as good as my Sanctuary II's. They better, because they are my Dallas Marathon shoes! Total miles: 7 miles

Tonight a big cold front comes in, so I'm hoping my mental any physical funk will be swept away along with the warmth and humidity!

7-mile run in the 'hood

Today I decided to do 7 easy miles around my neighborhood. I usually prefer running at Town Lake, but the main benefit of starting from my home is that I can wake up 30-40 minutes later.

Since I recently moved to the area, I am still figuring out various routes I can take to get different mileage. Today I decided to run a route very similar to one I did a few weeks ago. It is fun because I not only get to run, but I also get to explore the area around my neighborhood. I also have incorporated a little running through the grounds of my employer, Freescale.

The neat thing about the Freescale grounds is that they have some walking trails through the greenbelt. I've worked here over 6 years, and never knew until two weeks ago that these trails even existed. They aren't very long, but I have incorporated them into my 7-mile run because it takes me off the roads for about 1.5-2 miles. One part of the trail even passes a really old graveyard! I haven't stopped to look at it yet, but it is pretty neat to know it is there.

Hava did a 30-minute run this morning. She took a side trip to one of the houses being built in our neighborhood and said it was gorgeous inside. We actually happened to meet the people who are having it built, and they seemed very nice. I ended up seeing her the last mile of her run, up the big ass hill we have to climb to get back to our house. She looks so cute in her running gear. :-)

So what's next for the week? Meeting with Thon, Amy, and Carrie for 8 miles tomorrow morning. Thursday is the Turkey Trot in Ft. Worth, where I just might try to PR in the 5K race. This will also double as a speed workout (tempo run!). Then I am taking Friday off to finish the Turkey and Stuffing Digestion Process (TSDP). Saturday I am going to run around 15 on on the Mineral Wells Trail in Weatherford. I'm trying to get 30-35 miles for the week.

For all 2 of you who read this, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!!

53 mile week!

Thanks to Coach Thon, I ran a personal best 53 miles this past week. 32 miles between Monday and Thursday, and a 21-miler on Saturday morning. Besides it being a great mileage week, they were also QUALITY miles. Thon and I did a great mix of speed, hills, and recovery together throughout the week. Even with all of those miles, my legs felt great on Friday. I was actually looking forward to the big 21-mile run the next morning.

Saturday's run was also for the Jeroslow record books. It was Amy, Carrie, Venus, Thon, and me. We did Thon's White Rock simulator course. In a nutshell, the course is hilly at the beginning and hilly at the end, which is similar to the White Rock Marathon course we are doing in less than three weeks. It was one of those mornings where all of the planets were aligned..the kind you can only hope for on marathon day. On a personal level, I was rested, nutritionally prepared, thoroughly PRP'd (pre-run-pooped for you non-runners), and in a very good mental state. As for the weather, it was picture perfect running weather: dry, cold, and no wind.

I did do something slightly different this time around for my long run. I brought more nutrition than I usually do (enervitine, shot blocks, power gel). It is a bit of a pain because of the added bulk, but I decided to try something new. In my actual marathons, I seem to really fade away after mile 18 or so. I have concluded that one contributor might be not enough hydration and nutrition throughout the run. For this training run, I decided to err on the side of too much nutrition to see how I fared. The strategy was to take something every 3-4 miles max, versus every 4-5 miles like I have in the past.

We started off the run at Big Stacy pool in Travis Heights. Oh, and we started at 7AM instead of the normal 5:45 because Coach Thon said we should practice starting our run closer to when the Dallas race begins (8AM). Makes sense...he's so smart. :-) We began nice and easy, averaging around an 8:30-8:45 pace per mile. We got through the hills and as we were running down riverside we met up with one of Amy's friends. Most of the route was on Town Lake, so it was relatively flat and very predictable once we got through the hills. We stopped at the Runtex water stops at First St. and then Mopac. Everything felt great, and everyone else did too except Carrie. Her excuse was the Ironman 70.3 she completed less than a week before. I guess we'll accept that..hehe.

Anyway, we ran all the way around the lake up until 1/4th a mile from Riverside. In other words, we ran about 80% of the loop. After that, we turned right around to go back the way we came! By this point, we were actually running an 8:10-8:20 pace. Thon was setting it, and I was just keeping up with him. I didn't feel like I was having to exert too much energy though, which encouraged me to continue to keep up with him.

Around mile 16, Thon and I were pulling ahead of Amy (oh, and Carrie and Venus ended up cutting off earlier). Amy just wanted to get the miles in. So did I, until Thon made it clear that he wanted to finish strong. He didn't make this clear verbally, he made it clear by continuing to "up" the pace. I actually started to fall behind him a bit between 16 and 17. I had a mental battle going on in my head because I felt great, but I didn't want to hurt myself or end up bonking on the last few miles. My ego won out though, so I slowly started to close the gap with Thon and caught up before the Mopac bridge stop, about 3 miles from our finish. We took a 30-second water stop and continued on. We kept up with each other for the next 2 miles on the trail. Once we got off the trail though, my afterburner's started kicking in. We had one mile to go, but it was a hilly mile (once again, to simulate the the latter portion of White Rock). Hills are actually one of my strengths, so even though Thon was finishing very strong, I pulled ahead of him.

The last mile was pretty damn tough, but I finished it and looked at my watch. I had finished the 21 mile run in a total time of 3:01. This INCLUDED our stops, so without them I was more around 2:55. Our last 6 miles were ALL sub 8's!! And I felt great, nothing ached more than usual, and I had no major tightening up of muscles. It was a mental and physical affirmation for me, and it makes me feel very optimistic about the marathon (do you hear that Carrie and Thon, I'm optimistic!). To sum it up, this was the best 20+ mile training run I have ever had. I felt great and had managed to maintain a great pace without expending too much effort.

I haven't had high expectations for this marathon because my training has slightly suffered due to other commitments (marrying the love of my life and having a house built). But Thon and Carrie have repeatedly told me I can do a 3:30. After Saturday's run, I actually am starting to believe them.

My PR is a 3:46 from last year's Chicago Marathon. At the minimum, I know I can beat that. And if the planets are aligned just right again, I might just get that 3:30. Now its time for 3 weeks of smart tapering!

I did not run today, I didn't sleep well last night and was just too tired when I woke up at 4:30. I'm going to do an easy 3 this evening and then 7-8 tomorrow and Wednesday. As for Thursday, I am doing the Ft. Worth Turkey Trot 5k. I am possibly going to make an attempt to PR. Stay tuned!

Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday

I have been swamped at work until just now, so my BROTH had to wait. Here's a quick recap of my last 3 running days:

Saturday: I help coach the 8:45 minute pace group with AustinFit every Saturday. Since I am training for a December marathon, I have had to run extra miles before I run with AustinFit to get my mileage up to what it should be (AustinFit is still in the 11-mile range since they are training for AT&T in February). I wanted to do 14-15, so I ran 3-miles at 7AM before meeting up with AustinFit for a 12-mile run. It ended up only being 4 of us, probably because Motive was the next day. We did the Scenic loop, which is one of my favorite runs. It is challenging, fun, and well, scenic. I felt really good overall and Rafael (head coach) and I finished our last 2-3 miles averaging around a 7:30.

Monday: I met up with Coach Thon and Amy for a 10-mile pace run. I was kind of nervous about it mainly because I didn't watch my diet on Sunday very well. I had this sneaking suspicion it might be a factor during the run. We started off slow, but after about half a mile, we quickly started to speed up to our goal of an 8 minute pace. Everything felt great up until mile 6 or so. That is when the GI issues I was afraid of kicked in. Luckily, there was a bathroom coming up within the next half-mile. I told Thon and Amy that if there was someone in there, I would tear down the door and pull them out...and if I were truly capable of tearing a metal door down I wouldn't have been lying! Luckily, no one was there and I was able to enter quickly, telling Thon and Amy I would meet them at the water stop a little less than 2 miles away. I took care of bid-ness real quick (TMI???) and was out in less than 2 minutes. The feeling after something like this during a hard run can be appropriately called the "Other runner's high". I felt like a new man and was determined to catch up to Thon and Amy. I started running at a 7 minute pace and just barely missed catching up with them at the Mopac bridge water stop by about 15 seconds. I was hauling butt!! After our water break, I thought we were going to cool down the last 2 miles, but Thon had a different idea and I followed suit. We averaged around a 7:30 pace on these last 2 miles, with Thon leading the way. Overall, it felt really good! I went for a massage after work on Monday with Ann at Body Dynamix. She rocks.

Today: Well, in short, today sucked. I met up with Thon at 5:30 for a 7-mile recovery run. I felt crappy the entire way, even when only averaging a 9:30 pace. I can attribute it mostly due to a lack of sleep. I am going to try to get to bed at 8 today to catch up. If I can manage that, I will be running 10 with Thon tomorrow morning for a hill or fartlek run. If I can't catch up on my sleep, I will probably settle for 3-4 hilly miles in my neighborhood.

One more thing, my running wife Carrie KICKED ASS in her Ironman Triathlon 70.3!!!! I am really proud of her and can't wait to hear about everything. Check her blog for a great write-up...and to find out how lucky she is to have such a great fiance' (oh, and he's pretty damn lucky too!).

Humid run around the lake

I got outside this morning and was greeted by a 72 degree temp. mixed with lots of humidity. What is going on here, is it November or what!!!??? Oh well, I guess it serves as a reminder to not take the crisp, cool mornings for granted.

The initial plan was to run some sort of fartlek run this morning. I got to Runtex and as I was walking to meet Thon when I saw Alex and invited him to run with us. I was not feeling all that great (it turns out leftover Sausage Lover's pizza isn't the best pre-run meal) and Thon seemed to be in a slight running funk, so we decided to do 4 easy miles instead of a fartlek.

It was an uneventful run, Alex wanted to get another mile or so in so he kept going as Thon and I crossed over the 1st Street bridge to complete our loop. When Thon and I were crossing, we came to the consensus that this was an "off" week for us. It makes sense, especially for Thon. He hasn't had an off week for many eons. Also, I think the half-marathon drained him both mentally and physically, so he really needed to take it easy this week to get back into the zone. I have no doubts that he will come back strong next week. Hopefully he'll also rub off on me for this final stretch to the Dallas Marathon on December 10th.

Next week is our last tough week before a 3-week taper. I am hoping to get 40-50 miles worth of running, which includes our last 20-miler a week from this Saturday.

Tonight we are meeting up with my running wife Carrie (I'll explain in another blog someday) and her fiance' Shawn to properly send Carrie off for her Ironman World Championship race on Saturday. We're really excited for her and plan on tracking her along the way. Good luck Carrie!!

A great day...if you're a Democrat

I didn't run today. Mainly because I stayed up late with Thon, Richard, and his wonderful wife Stephanie watching the election returns.

I am not a die-hard Democrat. However, I am a die-hard Bush and neo-conservative Republican non-liker (hate is too strong a word, but very close). I have felt like Bush and the Republicans in Congress have taken us in the wrong direction in many ways. I'll spare you a political rant, but I needed all 3 people who read this blog to know that I am EXTREMELY relieved to return to a balance of power in our federal government.

Anyway, I didn't get to bed until 12 so I was not planning on waking up at 4:45 for anything other than having to pee.

Thon and I are planning on doing a fartlek run tomorrow, so no late-night CNN for me tonight.

Solo 7-miler

Thon and I had planned on meeting up for an 8-mile run this morning, but he wasn't able to make it at the last minute. So instead of going to Runtex I went to my old starting point under the Mopac bridge and did the 7-mile route all by my lonesome. It was a decent morning..in the mid-50's but very humid. I felt pretty good cardio-wise, but my legs were pretty tired. I finished in 1:03, which made for a nice 9-minute per mile pace.

I got home earlier than usual and was able to make myself a yummy egg and veggie sausage breakfast! Hava is leaving for Seattle today, so I have to fend for myself for the next few days. Thon and Richard might come over tonight to keep me company. Oh and also to watch House and the election returns.

Speaking of the election returns, I am crossing my fingers and hoping that the Democrats can take back at least one side of the legislative branch. It's time to get more balance (and common sense) back in our government!!!! It looks like we have a pretty good chance, especially in the House.

Whatever your voting preference is though, go out and vote today if you haven't already!

Popping my blog cherry

I know it seems too good to be true, but I'm FINALLY going to start posting on BROTH. I didn't really have a choice, as my friend Richard threatened to remove the link to BROTH on his blog site. He also provided even more pressure at the end of his latest blog. Needless to say, I owe a BIG THANK YOU to Richard for blackmailing me into writing my first blog.

BLOG VIRGIN DISCLAIMER: I am still figuring out how to use the web-based tool, so bear with me. I also won't promise that I will have a blog written every day at this point, but I will be sure to write in it as much as I can. Oh , and this will primarily be a blog about my running, but as the name BROTH suggests, I will also discuss other things happening in my life.

Once I figure out how to add a bio to BROTH, I'll give you a summary of my running history. For today's daily BROTH though, I'm just going to recap this past weekend's treck to Dallas for The Half.

Thon convinced me a few weeks ago that I should go with him to Dallas to run The Half, which is a half-marathon course that basically runs around White Rock Lake in Dallas. He described it as a well-planned event with a really great "free" technical shirt. It didn't take much to convince me, especially since I needed a good gauge of my running shape.

We left Austin on Saturday at 11...it was me, Thon, and another Gazelle, Liliana Jackson who needed a ride (and the company of two really cool dudes). The ride up was pretty uneventful. Liliana, who I didn't really know, turned out to be a really sweet woman and lots of fun to have around. At Thon's request, we stopped at Starbuck's in Temple for a cup of Joe. We also stopped at Schlotzky's in Hillsboro for food and a driver change. Thon used to live in Dallas, so we figured we were best off with him in the driver's seat.

We got to Dallas around 3:30 or so and went straight to Run-On (running store and packet pick up location) to pick up our race packets. Somehow our race numbers were within one number of each other. Since we registered separately, the only thing we could think of is that they numbered everyone by their hometown. Oh-well, I'll try to solve that mystery sometime if I get really bored. As Thon promised, the "free" technical shirt was AWESOME. It is a soft top layer shirt that has pockets. Not really the best for running, but a great pre or post-run layer.

After Run-On, we went to Central Market to get some breakfast food and hydration. We got bananas, Vitamin Water, and even some dinner rolls. After that, we went straight to our hotel to relax a bit before dinner. Thon and I shared a room on the 19th floor and Liliana, a mother of two that never gets to relax much, got her own room on the 5th floor with a nice King size bed. She made it no secret that she was excited about this. And no, Thon and I did not share a King size bed, we had our own comfy Queens. While unpacking, I realized pretty quickly that I forgot running socks. DUH. After a few minutes of debating whether I could get away with wearing my normal white cotton socks, I finally gave in to the theory of my foot sweat being "wick'd" away with a polyester blend sock vs. the regular soaking action of a cotton sock.

Thon and I headed back to Run-On and whaddya know, our coach Gilbert and his cousin Bernard were there picking up their packets. It's always good to see Gilbert, but it was even better seeing him outside of Austin. Not sure exactly why, but it was. After talking to them for awhile and buying the cheapest pair of wicking socks I could find ($8.00!!!!!!), we finally left Run-On for the second time. Thon went ahead and drove to the race start to check it out, and then we headed back to the hotel.

After a little bit more relaxation in the hotel, we met Liliana in the lobby and headed out to dinner. The first place we went to had a 1 hour wait (at 6pm!!!), so we had to find an alternate site pretty quickly before it got too late to eat. Luckily, Thon had friends who were meeting us and they made reservations at a nice Italian restaurant for us. We got to the restuarant around 6:30 and had a nice meal. It was tough trying to find a meal that was compatible with an early morning race (no spices, little dairy, little butter), but we managed to find a couple of things on the menu. Just to be safe though, we ordered the sauce on the side. I think the waiter thought we were a bunch of freaks...which I guess is half true the night before a big race.

When we got back to the hotel, both the Texas/OSU game and the Texas A&M/OU game were on TV. The Texas game turned out to be a joke, but of course my Aggies kept things exciting until the end. Unfortunately, "the end" was 10:30PM. Thon managed to go to sleep before the end of the game, but I wouldn't dare. Unfortunately, the Aggies lost on some really crappy calls by Coach Fran..and now I was in the position of not only being up too late, but being extremely riled up from the last minute loss to OU. I didn't get to sleep until 11:00.

Thon gave me a head start as I woke up at 5:30 for my pre-race routine. I won't go into too many specifics, but it involved an opportunity to sit and ponder about the upcoming race for a few minutes. I was actually somewhat nervous about the race..the weather wasn't ideal for me (mid 60's and humid), I was tired, etc. etc. But I was still confident that I would do my best under the circumstances. My PR for a Half is 1:43:40, which to be honest is not that good considering my other race PR's. I hadn't done a half since joining Gazelles, so this was my first opportunity to use my enhanced Gazelle skills to PR.

We met up with Liliana downstairs around 6:30 and headed to the race. We found Gilbert and Bernard eventually once we got there and did a 2-mile warm-up with them. I normally either don't do a warm up or keep it to under 5 minutes, so this was new to me. It was really great running with Gilbert (not something you can do very often, he is too fast!), but after we finished the slow two miles, I was already very sweaty and felt a little dehydrated. This didn't make me feel very confident unfortunately.

I lost Thon and Liliana at the port-o-potties after the warm-up, so I made my way to the starting line by myself. They had markers for paces, so in theory you wouldn't have to start behind people that are slower than you (more on this in a sec). I decided to stand right in front of the 8-minute mile group. To beat my PR, I would have to run a sub 8-minute mile, so my lack in confidence was already showing a little. However, I ended up moving closer to the 7-minute mile marker because I found Thon and Liliana and decided to start with them.

The gun went off, and we started our journey. The first thing I noticed was that a bunch of the people in front of me weren't even running close to a 7 or 8 minute mile. I just don't understand what these people are thinking..can anyone explain this to me?????? Do these people enjoy getting run into? Or maybe is it a strategy to help them place better in their age group? Who knows..?? Anyway, Thon had a PR goal that involved running a 7-minute mile, so my run with him and Liliana ended after about 30-seconds when they both pulled ahead. I had already convinced myself that I wasn't going to have a great race (Carrie and Thon, I know what you are going to say), so I was ok with not trying to keep up. Oh, and on a funny note, we saw Gilbert going the wrong way when we started!! More on that later.

The course was flat the first 3 miles or so, I was feeling ok. I made sure to get water at every stop. Around the 3 mile mark, the course veered away from the lake for awhile and went through a pretty hilly neighborhood. I was managing to average around an 8-minute mile for the first 6 miles, so I actually was doing better than I thought. It crossed my mind that if I could have negative splits the rest of the way I could reach my PR. Unfortunately though, my energy gradually started to deplete around mile 7 or 8. I was getting hydrated and even took liquid crack (Enervitine), but my body just continued to feel weaker and weaker. After mile 8, the course went back to the lake and was pretty flat. Mentally it was tough, because you could see a mile or so ahead on the course and it seemed to take forever to get there. My mile average was getting closer to 8:15, so I was headed in the wrong direction. I was starting to feel like I do for the last 6 miles of a marathon. Not good.

I was determined to only walk through the water stops, so I pushed myself hard..I was even using the generic "one foot in front of the other" line on myself. My 11th mile was an 8:31, I was really dragging. With one mile to go though, I saw Gilbert running a cool-down with his friend Laura, and with his encouragement I was able to dig down deep and speed up. My last mile was a 7:44 pace, and I finished with a time of 1:45:40, two-minutes short of my PR. I saw Thon right away and even though he had a very respectable time of 1:38:54, it was short of his PR and even shorter of his goal to beat his PR. Liliana finished with Thon, and it was also well short of her PR.

I am disapointed in my performance, and I know Thon and Liliana were too..but I think there were many factors that we can attribute to it. Along with my own personal issues (tired from staying up to late with the Aggies, fatigued, oh and I ran 7 miles with Austin Fit on Saturday morning), there were other reasons it was tough. First off, the weather was not ideal, and even though Thon doesn't seem to think it is much of a factor, I think it definitely contributed. Also, even though I did like the course, it contained many long rolling hills. Liliana thought it was harder than Motive (a very hilly half-marathon in Austin) and even Gilbert said it was a very tough course. Lastly, none of us were in a taper and Thon and I had just completed a 21-miler the week before. These aren't excuses, but I don't think any of us were meant to PR that day.

Anyway, it turns out that even with having a crappy day, Lilian placed 2nd in her age group!! She is a 47-year old mother of 2 and she placed 2nd in her age group on a bad day. Not too shabby- and she got a trophy! Gilbert placed 5th overall and Bernard placed 3rd overall! They are badasses. Speaking of Gilbert, turns out he got to the starting line late because of some port-o-pottie related issues. He attributes the issues to a meal at La Madeline the night before..specifically a bowl of basil pesto soup. He had to run through the crowd to get his chip time started, and then weave through everyone to get to the front of the pack. He probably lost 2-3 minutes..which was very close to the difference between him and 1st place. Oh well..both he and Bernard got trophies and cash prizes.

We watched everyone get their trophies, and then made our way to my car. Gilbert was riding back with us to Austin, so we said our good-bye's to Bernard and drove to the hotel for quick showers. After our showers, Gilbert suggested we head to Chipotle. That sounded like an excellent plan, as I was starving. Gilbert treated all of us to lunch,which was very cool of him. We literally scarfed our meals and still didn't feel full.

On our way home, we had endless discussion about running and lots of gossip about fellow Gazelles that will not be repeated on this blog (it was all in good fun). Carrie text messaged us to see how we did and Richard called us as well. Richard talked with Thon and myself briefly and he even got to talk to Gilbert, which I think meant a lot to him (Richard has been struck with a mystery illness for over two months now).

We got to Runtex and I dropped Thon and Liliana off. Then I dropped Gilbert off at his house down south and had the opportunity to briefly visit with his wife and kids. His wife Trephine (sp??) is really sweet, and she gave me a few bananas (the big, plaintain kind) to fry at home.

Then I went home and hugged my beautiful wife Hava..it was great to see her after a whole 30 hours of being gone!! Yeah, I'm whipped. She ran a great 5k in the Race for the Cure, I am really proud of her. Gilbert and I are going to try to convince her to join Beginner Gazelles...we'll see!

That's it for my first blog! Don't worry, most will be much shorter than this one.Thanks again to Richard for the gentle blackmailing..and thanks to Thon, Liliana, and Gilbert for a great trip to Dallas. Regardless of the outcome of the race, I feel very lucky to have such good running companions in my life.