A sort of biking adventure

I've reduced my running significantly after the LA marathon.  Nothing over 6 miles.  My LA marathon partner Anita has gotten into biking and so after a failed previous attempt to go biking, we made solid plans to go yesterday.  We loaded up our bikes, sunscreened and headed out for a path that picked up in Culver City and would drop us out onto the beach path. 

It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day and I was looking forward to getting 10-15 miles of biking in.  A short ride since I hadn't biked in a while.  Unfortunately, we hadn't gone more than 500 feet when I heard a loud POP! - the unmistakable sound of a tire popping.  Though I had thought of bringing a tire repair kid with me that morning, I did not.  I had often gone riding in Madison without one and I had never gotten a flat.  I thought I'd be fine.  Thankfully, between the two of us, we had all the tools and knowledge to fix a flat.  I had a tire pump and Anita had not only a tire repair kit but also a spare tube.  She had never fixed a flat before, and I at least knew how to do it and had removed the tire from my bike before.

So I turned my bike upside down, removed the tire, put in the new tube, pumped it back up and were in the middle of putting things away when POP! - again, the tire was flat.  We were baffled.  We hadn't even put the tire back on the trail yet.  I undid the tire once more, examined the tube and saw that it was a different kind of hole.  The hole looked like the tube had been pinched but I had checked and double checked that it wasn't pinched between the tire and the rim.  I told Anita that I would try to fix it again, and if it popped once more then I think we should call it a day.  We took out the patch kit and I patched up my tube.  I put it back in and in the middle of pumping the tire back up, I noticed that the tube was peeking out of an apparently giant gash in the tire.  The pressure as we pumped it pinched the tube and led to the second popping.  Of course, I forgot to check the actual tire itself.  So we packed it up and hiked a trail nearby and had lunch. 

Giant gash in my tire.

Afterward, I learned of "the dollar bill" trick, where you stick a dollar bill where the gash in the tire is to prevent the tube from pushing out and getting pinched.  It's not ideal, but when you're miles from home, it can temporarily provide a way to limp home.  Now I've got to make sure to carry cash and a tire repair kit with me the next time I ride.

I noticed a couple of things while attempting to repair the tire on the side of the trail.  One is that people were very willing to help us.  Nearly everybody who passed by no matter if they were bikers or runners would ask whether we needed any help.  We politely turned them down each time, but it was nice to know that we could've easily found help had we needed it.

The other thing I noticed was how impressed people were that I knew how to fix a flat on my bike.  I always thought that everybody who rode their bike knew how to fix a tire or rode with somebody who did.  I mean, I was nervous to ride long by myself when I didn't know how to fix a tire.  We got a lot of offers of help but also a lot of people commenting on how impressed they were that we seem to know how to fix the situation because they would've been stuck themselves. 

I only know because I took the WAAM class in Madison.  Even though the problem wasn't something that I could actually fix on the road, it's nice to know that the next time I run into a flat, I know how to keep going. 

2013 Race Favorites

I meant to write this around the New Years since it seemed a fitting way to recap 2013.  But alas, here we are in March.

I set a few PRs in 2013.  Some by default, and some by training. I set a half marathon PR in March, and then set a new half marathon PR six months later in September.  I set a 10k PR as part of a 50k relay, along with a 5k PR.  These were by effort.  That is, these are instances of measurable improvement.  In comparison, I also set a 1 mile PR and a marathon PR by default since they were the first of these races that I've ran.

There were a few races in 2013 that were quite memorable and enjoyable for me.  Of course, because experiences are biased by default, you should take my pick of favorites with a grain of salt.  Had the weather been different that day, had I better trained, etc, I might have picked a different set of favorites.

In the category of half marathons, the Quad Cities half marathon is my favorite of 2013 for the unique experience of running across a suspension bridge, a very scenic course, cheap race entry and the ease of logistics.  The Get Lucky half marathon comes in second for its awesome swag and ease of logistics.  There aren't too many races where you can easily find parking just a five minute walk away when it's 50 minutes before the start.  Third is a toss-up between Fort Atkinson and Madison Mini-Marathon.  The Madison Mini drops a bit because of the course change that sends you up some not fun hills at mile 10, which also makes the last bit not as interesting.  However, the beginning of the race is still quite lovely as it hits all the highlights of Madison.  Fort Atkinson, on the other hand, has a quaint small town feel.  I love that the field of runners is so small and the race entry is so cheap.  I also particularly enjoy the AYCE pancake breakfast at the end and its flat course.  Last, of course, is the Haunted Hustle.  That one, I'm never doing again.

I only ran one marathon in 2013, and even if I were in the vicinity, I don't know that I'd do again in 2014.  I still remember the hills of Cincy, but I also remember the very well organized race.  I suspect it's one that I'll come back to in the future, just not immediately.

I ran three 5ks in 2013.  My favorite is definitely the Full Moon 5k.  I mean yes, I did PR so that may be why I think of it as fondly as I do, but I also remember the amazing view of the Capitol building at night as we rounded Monona Bay.  The glittering reflection of the Madison skyline in the water is mesmerizing.  I'd run it again just for that.  Neither the Arboretum Sprint nor the Valentine's 5k made a strong impression on me.  Those are take it or leave it for me.  The same goes for Syttende Mai and Crazy Legs.

The last 2013 race that I'm sad to be missing in 2014 is the Mad City 50/100k.  This is also a small race, but I enjoy it for the opportunity to run my favorite path in Madison, as well as the chance to run among runners of all speeds.  In most other races, I'm corralled or grouped with other runners of relatively the same speed as me, but in this event, I get passed by the faster elite runners AND I get to see the slower runners steadily plodding along, and both of them inspiring me to keep pushing for my best.  I also really like watching each of the relay teams support their teammates and the general camaraderie as we wait for our own teammates to finish. 

I have yet to make plans for 2014 races mostly because I'm not all that certain where I'll be for the second half of the year, but I'm looking at some of the races mentioned above if I happen to be in Madison.

LA Marathon

4:53:15. 

I can't complain.  It was 65 at the start, 79 by the time I was at mile 21.  I was SEVERELY undertrained.  I did a 19 miler two weeks ago and didn't touch my running shoes again until Friday before the race.  The 3 mile run on Friday was rough.  The 19 miler was supposed to be the 20 miles, but I had to stop at 19 because I felt like I had strained my groin.  So I stopped and stretched and things seemed to be okay.  But on Friday, I was feeling it again.

Sure enough, mile 8, that groin started acting up enough that I was certain I had strained it.  It hurt, but thankfully, not bad enough that I couldn't keep going at a slower pace.

My bowels were also giving me issues around mile 12, so I finally hopped in a porta potty at mile 15 marker.  There weren't enough water stations and I felt dehydrated for much of the race.  I'm pretty sure I'm sunburnt despite a generous application of sunblock and a hat. 

So given all those issues, being just 5 minutes slower than my very first marathon where I was better trained and ran in a cool cloudy 65 degrees throughout condition, this is a win in my book.  I even managed to average a 9:27 my last mile again. 

About the LA marathon itself: I'm glad that I did it since it was the very first one that I'd seen that inspired me to want to run a marathon, but I'm probably never running it again.  To the organizers' credit, with a field of 25,000, the course didn't seem overly crowded.  You were always running with people, yet you still always had room to run.  It also didn't take us overly long to get to the start.  I was expecting to wait nearly half an hour before I'd get to the start line, but I was there in less than 3 minutes.  I also appreciated the number of spectators that came out and supported us along the course.  BUT, it's still a field of 25,000, which made the logistics of this race a nightmare.  It took nearly an hour for my friend's parents to get through the traffic for the race just to pick us up.  The finish line was over 20 miles from the start, but there were no shuttles back to the start where I had parked my car.  The medal at the end was just okay, and the food at the finish line left MUCH to be desired.  With an early bird entry fee of $150 and given that LA is HOT, I much rather pass.  There are so many better races out there.  Flying Pig being one of them.