I’ve been running a mile here and there, but nothing substantial. I had to stop after the marathon for awhile because I had hurt my right ankle. It really hurt to go back on it. Then, with my thesis and many graduation committments I just did not have the ability to run. I was also pretty burnt out about running.

I also started eating poorly, and gained quite a bit of weight back. Just in 2 months. Incredible.

So, I’ve decided to take charge of my life again. I am a marathon finisher. I was on such a high upon finishing that marathon. I refuse to let dismal current circumstances - mainly the inability to find a job - bring me down.

I don’t want to run another marathon right now. I think I want to run one marathon a year. But, I do want to get back into a fitness mode, and I find that I respond well to goals. So, my good friend Helen - who is one of the main reasons I finished the Pasadena Marathon - signed up for the San Francisco half marathon on July 26th. So, my goal is to train to do that.

I think it is very feasible. I ran a marathon two months ago. My body is ready to go. This is the training schedule I set for myself. During the week, I am going to keep myself fairly easy. I’m just going to do 3-3-3- on Tuesday- Wednesday - Thursday. My long runs will again be on Sunday. They will be as following:

6/7/09 - 3 miles

6/14/09 - 5 miles

6/21/09 - 6 miles

6/28/09 - 8 miles

7/5/09 - 10 miles

7/12/09 - 12 miles

7/19/09 - 8 miles

7/26/09 - San Francisco Half Marathon

I have different goals for this run. I have to make the half marathon in under three hours. I am not a fast runner. That has never been my strong point. It took me six hours and thirty minutes to run the Pasadena Marathon - which is fine, but I want to get faster now.

So, I am planning on working on that. I don’t want to just get a little bit faster and finish in barely under three hours. I want to comfortably be under the three hour time. And, the San Francisco half marathon will have a lot of hills so I want to make sure that I am prepared to do that.

I have made the decision to do this run for the following reasons:

1. I am going insane worrying about jobs. I need to put all that nervous energy into something that is more productive.

2. I want to get faster and prepare to run a faster marathon in 2010.

3. I want to get back in shape and be as fit as I was just two and a half months ago.

4. I love running, and tend to respond well to goals.I’ve missed the pain in my legs. How odd that sounds.

5. Running across the Golden Gate Bridge, albeit from Los Angeles not San Francisco, will mean a lot to me as a Californian.

I have applied for multiple jobs in Washington DC, and am waiting to hear back from multiple places. Therefore, I am keeping this open. If I hear back, I am obviously going to go to DC. But, I am going to train nonetheless becasue the training is really the hard part that does the shaping. And, I respond well to goals in mind.

So, here goes nothing. Wish me luck.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/05/2009
• Time: 17:15:00
• Total Time: 00:00:00.00
• Distance: 2 miles

Firstly, let me thank everyone for the comments and the support. I have continuously been touched by the encouraging support by all the people on this fitness community. 

I was really missing my running. So, seven days after my marathon,  I headed back to the track. It was pretty awesome. I really enjoy running. I remember when I told myself that when I was training for my marathon, I was pretty much never going to run again. It amuses me that I miss it so recently. I am also very into my college track. I meet the same people there now and exchange the usual smile pleasantries. 

I like just running and not having to do abut anything. Running is my time to myself. To push out the rest of everything going on in my life. I really have enjoyed that. Just my time to think things out and enjoy sometime to myself. In many ways, that is why I really enjoy running by myself. Because no one can take away my ability to run. It’s very liberating.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 03/28/2009
• Time: 18:30:00
• Total Time: 00:00:00.00
• Distance: 3 miles

Weather.com said there was a 40% chance of rain and it would start at noon. I thought the odds in Southern California meant that it was not going to rain, but I brought a garbage bag with me anymore. Thank the Lord. It came in extremely handy. I woke up at 3:30am, got picked up at 4:30am, got to Pasadena at about 5:00am, and then we sat around and waited for awhile. We took some photographs and stuff. 

As we waited to start, I stood in line to use the restroom. And, then it started to rain. And, it didn’t just rain. It absolutely poured. It poured. And, it was cold. It was cold. Very very cold. In this wonderful situation, we started out. It was drizzling on and off for awhile. It was not a pleasant way to start. You could hear the crowd groaning. I was wearing a garbage bag over myself. 

By the way, Weather.com is a failure. 

So, I started out nice and slow. I really did not care about the time. I just wanted to finish the marathon. That is absolutely all that I cared about. Finishing a marathon. To me, that was all I needed. The kid that could not run a mile in Middle school. 

The rain eased a little bit, and then I started to keep going. Around mile 5, it started to pour again. It was not pleasant. I was passed by old men, old women, and kids that looked like they were 12, oh and a wheelchair. Man. I was like…wow. There were even people walking that were faster than me running.  But, it really didn’t bother me. I was really impressed at my ability to not let that bother me. 

What amazed me was that the calf pain and pain going down to my ankle was gone. It was absolutely not there. It was very very slight. None of the agony that I suffered earlier on. I was amazed. I was thrilled. 

Anyway, we kept going. I made lots of friend on this marathon. I have no idea what their names are, but I do know what they were wearing and I certainly cheered for and was cheered on by many of them many times during the race. 

Around mile 10, it absolutely started to pour again. I thought about the irony of the situation. We live in Southern California. It rains about 15 days a year, and of course it would rain on my first marathon. It was hard. Extremely hard to run in. It was raining so hard that I couldn’t see straight. And, I had put on sunblock before and it was going into my eyes and it stung. I was also a little afraid of slipping. But, there were funny moments. Funny moments make me happy and I can run for longer. For example, I had just put It’s Raining Men on my ipod. And, all of a sudden it showed up. That was pretty hilarious. I chuckled and ran. 

I ran into these people and we had a bunch of funny conversations about it. I kept running. I had planned my gels at 6, 12, 18, 24, and when I took them then it was a good time. It made me super happy to take my gels because when they were done, I felt like I was getting closer to my goal. One of our coaches also told us to imagine ourselves as an Etcho-sketch and shake ourselves out at 16, and remember then to do 4-3-2-1. That four seemed to take forever. 

Anyway, I got to 18 and I was still doing well. I was really proud that I was doing well. Even Mile 19, 20 went well and I was super excited. I was not hitting the wall. I was actually feeling pretty damn good. Mile 20 seemed to go on for a long time. But, I finally finished and I was happy because I just had to do 3-2-1 to go. 

Mile 21 was okay. Mile 22 was harsh because right at the very end, there was a huge hill. Perhaps it wasn’t that big but it seemed pretty hilly at Mile 22. I did it though. I ran up it. I had finished 22 miles. The Pasadena Marathon is quite hilly. More than the LA Marathon. 

This was where I hit the wall. Mile 23 and Mile 24 were harsh. I was starting to get worried. I had come this close, and now I started to feel as though I couldn’t go any further. I tried everything I could think of. Every mind game I had played, I started to play at full speed. I could feel my body and mind shutting down. I was running super slow. I tried to convince myself that I just needed to deal with each mile by itself and not worry about the following miles. It was hard though because I kept seeing those miles coming up in the distance. I mean here I did everything I could think of. I said my mantra. I played my mind games. I thought of all the people that had cheered me on - including the readers of this blog!

I didn’t care about the time. I really didn’t. The fact that I was doing this was enough for me. But, I had made a personal goal and that was to try to run the entire marathon without walking any of it. I had been successful so far. I was trying to rationalize if walking for a bit might help me run faster. But, I had pretty much decided to walk when all of a sudden I saw my mother! She had made it to the 24th mile. I saw her, and I ran and hugged her. That was what I needed. I pumped my fist in the air. I gave her my empty gel pouch. I pumped my hand in the air a few more times. And, I kept running. I have no idea where the energy came from. But, I kept turning around and pumping my hand in the air until I could see her go. The wall had a big hole through it which I had gone through. At that point, I was not going to walk. I was going to meet my personal goal and run the whole way. 

And, I did. I kept running. Slow sure, but I did not care. I just kept going. I saw the 24th mile marker. Only 2.2 more miles. That’s only 9 laps around the track. I can do this I told myself. There were supporters around here, and they really helped me out. I had my ipod on, but I saw them cheering and clapping. And, it was awesome. The mile seemed to go on forever, and I could not see the 25 mile marker. I thought this was the longest mile in the whole world, but I kept going. I started to get more energy which is something that I never understood. Where was this on Mile 23 and Mile 24? I just kept going. One foot in front of the other. I still thought I was on Mile 25. I saw one of my friends, and a guy with him said,” it’s just down there, round the corner, then go straight.” I was still wondering where mile 25 was, but I just kept going. Nothing mattered other than finishing right now. Nothing. There were a police officer stopping the cars and he smiled at me, and cheered me on. I pumped my fist at him and he kept cheering. 

Then, a miracle happened. I crossed the 210 freeway, saw the cars below me, made a left, made a right and ran down a street. And, then I saw not the Mile 25 sign, but the Mile 26 sign! Praise the LORD. It did seem forever because the Mile 25 sign must have blown away. At that point, I felt amazing. I did not feel like I had just run 26 miles. I felt like I had lighting in my shoes. I felt ignited. I felt a huge smile appear on my face, and I felt amazing. I have no idea where the energy came from, but I started running. Really running. I had definitely been jogging the entire marathon up till now. But, not anymore. My ridiculously large grin, my head held high, I turned the corner and saw the miracle word: FINISH. Man, I think I sped up again. I passed two people. One of them was quite old true, but there was a younger looking man. I sped past them. The younger guy turned around, saw me coming and stepped out of the way. I felt amazing. I saw the time: 6:30 but even that couldn’t make me upset. I had wanted to run it in under 6 hours, but even that did not disturb me because I just wanted to finish. I ran feeling proud, and as I finished I threw my hand into the air. I had done it! I had run a marathon. Me, the kid that couldn’t run a mile in middle school. I ran a marathon. An entire marathon without stopping to walk once. And, that was my goal met. To finish, and to run the entire thing without stopping to walk. I was hours behind the winners, but I felt like a champion. Because I was. I was a champion to myself. And, that feeling is worth more than anything else in the world. 

“I ran a marathon,” I beamed out to the high school kids that gave me a medal. 

“High five,” one of them said. I high fived the kid, and beamed hugely to the whole world. My mum appeared and gave me a huge hug. I had no idea what she said because my headphones were still on pounding music into my ears. 

I had no idea what to do, but I kept beaming as largely as I could. Someone gave me a bottle of something, but I just kept beaming. I kept staring at my medal. It was amazing. I had done this. One of my coaches came up to me, gave me a high five and a big hug. Then we took a bunch of photos. My friend Helen kept taking photographs every 15 seconds. It was crazy. I felt like I could fly. 

I called my Dad who was super excited and told me that he was really proud of me. I was pretty much screaming into the phone about how excited I was so the lady at the bag check heard me too and gave me a thumbs up before she gave me my bag. I put my sweats on, and we waited for another friend of ours to finish. She did, and we ran outside the finish line for her. It was something else. 

I did it. I ran a marathon. Me. The non-athletic Kid. The kid who couldn’t run a mile in Middle School. Who had bronchitis as a child. I did. With pure determination and heart. I realized that I had learned a lot about myself. But, most importantly, I had learnt to cut all the distractions from my life. I had learned to listen to myself, and deem all unnecessary, pointless, distracting, negative dialogue energy out of my mind. For many an hour on many a long run, including today. And, I had discovered that I was a pretty awesome companion to have. I ran most of the time by myself, and it was good. 

I feel pretty awesome. I feel amazing. I feel like a champ. 

Thank you for following my journey, and for your extremely encouraging comments. I definitely read the comments on the 22miler turned 25 at 3:45am.  

I plan to keep going. I don’t know if I will run another marathon soon, but I want to again. I think for awhile I may keep to half marathons.

But, I just want to tell anyone reading this that you can do it. Whatever it is that you have always wanted to do, but never thought you could do. I am an example of that. If I can run a marathon, it proves that anyone with determination and heart can do it. Because I definitely broke no records. But, that is nothing in comparison to how awesome I feel about myself. You can be a 5ker, 10ker, 15ker, half marathoner, full marathoner. You can do it.

Random fun facts about today: 

According to the National Weather Service station just east of Pasadena today between the hours of 6am and 11:30am…

0.23 inches of rain.
Winds between 7 and 10 mph, with gusts up to 28 mph.
Windchills ranging from 41 to 44 degrees

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 03/22/2009
• Time: 17:07:34
• Total Time: 6:30:00.00
• Calories: 2541
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Average Pace: 14:53.3/mile

After I ran, I stretched for a good 45 minutes. I stretched and stretched. Ahaha. I’m sure the people on the track thought I was crazy to be there for that long. 

Anyway, what I realized is that I don’t have to walk when my calves hurt like crazy. I can run very very slowly, and that is okay. I think one very slow mile or two will help me get into it and run faster later on. I did that on the 12 miler and 19 miler and I managed it. Then, I think I can speed up later on. I think I just need to get through the first 3-4 miles. Then, I’m good. I think that part is really mental for me. Towards the end, I know my whole body hurts but it isn’t like the calf pain. It’s just exhaustion. 

Anyway, two miles tomorrow and then I’m doing it. 26.2 miles. I’m going to do it. I’ve decided to do it in 7 mile chunks. First, seven miles. That is what it’s all about. It scares me to think of the whole thing. So 7, then 14. Then, 21. Once I get to 21, I feel like since I’ve come so far that I’m just gonna plough through. Woo hoo. I am getting excited. It is going to be awesome. Woo hoo. 

It’s going to be hard.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 03/18/2009
• Time: 17:30:00
• Total Time: 00:00:00.00
• Distance: 3 miles

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 03/17/2009
• Time: 17:30:00
• Total Time: 00:00:00.00
• Distance: 2 miles

The run wasn’t amazing. It was a pretty crappy part of LA to run through. We ran through parts of downtown. Yea, not very lovely. Very different to the beautiful runs around the Rosebowl, and the LA coastline. My knees were hurting something bad. 

You know, it is really interesting because I can look at my runs and tell you the ones that were better than others. The best runs have been the 12 miler and the 19 miler. I really actually genuinely enjoyed those runs. I really want it to be like that. I don’t know what it was exactly. There was a combination of things. I was scared at both of those runs. I kinda broke the run up into small parts and dealt with just getting to a certain part in my head. Then, I got to the next part etc. I started out kinda slow in the beginning, but then I sped up more in the middle of the runs. For both, the end couple of miles were harsh and not fun, but I made it through to the end. It was just a lot of: i can do this. i love running. Also, I think that it was an acceptance that it was going to be a really really hard run, and going into it knowing that is part of the whole process. 

I really want the marathon to be like that. 

We have a pretty simple week ahead. They said to do 2-3-2 or 3-3-3 on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. 

I cannot believe that I am doing this. I cannot believe how far I have come. 

I want to be under 6 hours, but I don’t think I honestly care. I read this book called The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer, and it said that you shouldn’t put a time limit on your first marathon because if you don’t make it you will feel like a huge loser after running a marathon and it can also bring about the wall. I know that I’m super slow, and I’m okay with it. Still, the slower you are the more you have to actually keep running for so I wouldn’t mind being done. I’m thinking since I did like 25 miles, I should be okay. 

I also want to make sure that I don’t get super sick after this. I’m going to drink a ton of orange juice, and keep taking my cough syrup medicine for a week after the marathon. I cannot afford to get super sick again. 

I cannot believe that in a week I will be done. I will be a marathoner.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 03/15/2009
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 00:00:00.00
• Distance: 8 miles

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 03/12/2009
• Total Time: 00:00:00.00
• Distance: 5 miles

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 03/10/2009
• Total Time: 00:00:00.00
• Distance: 3 miles

i have not reacted well to that last run. it was pretty awesome mentally, but physically my body did not respond well. i started with a cough, that lead to a cold and sore throat. it got really bad, so finally i went to the health center at my school yesterday. the doctor gave me an antibiotic and an inhaler. 

i didn’t go on the long run this weekend. it was just 12 miles, but i was feeling pretty miserable. i ran during the week - one mile - ahaha but it got me even more sick. the doctor said i should feel good in about 3-4 days. has this happened to anyone? how do you recover from it? i’ve been trying to get more sleep and rest, and am eating well and drinking lots of fluids. any suggestions though? will this mess me up for the marathon on the 22nd? am i going to loose all the training? i doubt that, but i was just wondering what people thought. 

Oh, and by the way, thank you so much for all the encouraging comments left at my last entry. I was really touched. Thank you.

Workout:

• Type: Flexibility
• Date: 03/08/2009
• Time: 10:30:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00
• Calories: 196