That's Like Freezing

It's going to be 33°F at the starting line of tomorrow's Las Vegas Rock N Roll Marathon.  (I'm running the half.)

I've got running gloves and a hat.  Maybe I should have brought along something warmer than a dry-fit shirt.  At least it's long sleeved.

BRR.

My Most Embarassing Race

Race Notes: Rock N Roll San Antonio Half Marathon

My calves were sore the day before the race. When that happens, I use Sportscreme or Aspercreme or Flexall the morning of the run. Brand doesn't matter to me as long as it doesn't smell. The store didn't have any brands that I'd used before, but they had Capzasin. It was odorless and came in a roll-on. Fine.

What I didn't know is that Capzasin is made of the stuff that makes chili peppers hot and makes pepper spray burn. I was fine before the race. Then I started running and sweating and the Capzasin started burning. By mile 2, it was scorching. I looked at my calves because I was sure they'd be bleeding; they hurt that badly. No blood, but I had raised welts where the roll-on went over my skin.

I stopped at the first medical assistance team. I sat on the bumper of the ambulance and put my water bottle and race pack down. They looked at my calves and started to rinse them with a bag of saline solution - that's salt water. Ouch. Then people started running up saying that someone was having a seizure on the course. The EMTs grabbed the gurney and bolted off. A few minutes later, they were back and yelling about full cardiac arrest. Two runners who were doctors or nurses had started doing CPR on the course. They tossed the guy in the wagon and sped off to the hospital.

Said a prayer for the guy and went back to running. I spent the next 3/4 mile alternating between praying and trying to block the memory of the guy on the gurney. I went to take a sip of my water and realized that my bottle and race pack were gone. They were in the ambulance when it sped off. My race pack had my credit card and my ID that I need to get on my flight home.

I turned around and ran back, hoping they had tossed the stuff out when they put the guy in the ambulance. I was asking if anyone had seen my stuff and a very nice young woman offered to drive to the hospital and find the EMTs and get it. I don't know how she did it, but she managed to weave through the marathon's closed streets, get to the hospital, find the EMTs, convince them to give her my pack and drive back to the same spot to return my race pack to me. Bless you! I don't know your name, but you are the most awesome of awesome people. I hope the whole world treats you as kindly as you treated me.

This whole adventure took well over an hour and I still had searing, burning calves. I might have given up, but this is race 6 of a 7 race series. I've been running this series since January - literally hundreds training miles and airplane miles. At this point, I will complete this series no matter what the pain or problem. Burning skin or not, I'm finishing this race.

When I passed the timing clock at Mile 3 it said 1 hour 47 minutes. Depressing. By mile 5, I was nearly in tears because every time the hem of my running capri touched my calf it was searing hot. At every water station I'd pour water on my calves, but it was making it worse.

Ding! Idea!

I remembered that water doesn't quench chili pepper, but there is something in sour cream that neutralizes the hot in chili peppers.* That's why they serve sour cream at Mexican restaurants. I bolted into the next quickmart, bought at 32oz. Diet Dr. Pepper (don't judge me!) and a tub of sour cream. I slathered sour cream all over my calves. It didn't work immediately, but within a mile the heat wasn't tear inducing. Within 2 miles I was okay.

Chili peppers, sour cream...you might as well serve me with a side of refried beans. I'm a running burrito.

But I'm a running burrito who finished that race.


*Milk has the protein casein which cools the capsaicin.

Cell Phone Camera - Deep in the The Heart Edition

This weekend I'm in San Antonio getting ready for tomorrow's race.

I had almost forgotten how much I love Texas. I'm very happy living in Southern California and never want to move but Texas will always have a very special place deep in my heart. Texas was the first place I ever really lived on my own without college or grad school to parent me. When I stepped off the plane yesterday I got teary...it was so good to be safely home.

Upon arrival, job 1 was to get myself an ice cold Shiner Bock beer. Upcoming race be damned. I need a Shiner! Just like Guinness tastes better in Ireland, Shiner is better in Texas.

Today I spent most of day reading my book in the garden at the Alamo. To get ready for the trip, I've been reading Three Roads to the Alamo. Sitting there, in The Cradle of Texas Liberty, reading the story of the siege was heartbreaking. (Though that Jim Bowie was a horrible scoundrel.)

I had dinner on the Riverwalk and enjoyed meandering back to the hotel. On the way, I stopped in a convenience store to get buy gum for the race tomorrow. Steve and I collect Christmas tree ornaments from our travels and I spotted a display. What the hey, sometimes I find nice ornaments in odd places. In the center of the display I spotted this one. Because what says Merry Christmas like a gun and "We don't dial 911".

Sweet Home Chicago

A few weeks ago Steve asked me what would happen if he couldn't go with me to the Chicago race. I told him that I'd be lonely, but that it would be okay. And it would have been okay, because I know he's had a pretty stressful workload lately. Plus, my company has a liberal vacation policy, while his company is positively stingy with vacation. We looked it over and decided that Steve could go, but he'd have to take the red-eye flight so that he could work an extra day. Since I like a red-eye flight (I fly the Ambien skies) and I was tempted to wait for him and travel together. We decided that I'd go out first and get the hotel, etc. There's nothing worse than arriving in the middle of the night and having to wait hours to check-in.

I got there Thursday evening and had few hours of work to do myself. Steve got there in the wee hours of the morning and promptly fell aspleep, only to wake up to to a few hours of work that needed his Urgent.Attention. It was sort of an odd experience for me. On more than one occassion, I've had to bail on vacation to work. Last summer, my parents visited from Pennsylvania. They spent a day sitting out my patio while I worked for 14 hours straight to meet a last minute deadline. I felt awful. This time I felt awful for Steve. He flew all night, then wasted a precious vacation day sitting at the desk in the hotel room.

When we finally got that nasty work business out of the way, we had a great time. Went to a White Sox game (Cubs were out of town). Spent 2 days at the Chicago Art Institute. Took the boat ride up the river to see the architecture. Popped into a blues club and lucked out because the band was excellent. Enjoyed Grant Park.

Oh, and yeah, I popped off another half marathon. Nice race - flat course, hot day and my legs were totally dead from walking 7 miles in flip flops the day before the race. Chicago was surprisingly lame with crowd support. There were long, long stretches of nobody cheering.

Toward the end of the race, I realized that this was my "Rockstar" race - my 5th half marathon in the Rock N Roll series for 2009. Back when I set the goal, the Rock N Roll Race Series was 5 races...then it got bigger and bigger and more races were added. Now the top prize is "Rock Legend" for 7 races and I'm doing all 7. However, 5 races was the original goal. When it finally hit me that this was my Rockstar Race, I realized I've have been really bummed if Steve wouldn't have been there to see me reach my goal.

Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

A list of things that will not negatively impact my half marathon tomorrow -

• Walking 7 miles today.
• Running around barefoot in the Crown Fountain.
• Having a medium rare Kobe beef burger with Gorgonzola cheese for dinner, instead of pasta or rice.
• That yummy red sangria.
  
• That yummier white sangria.
• Being up blogging instead of sleeping even though the race starts in 6 hours.

It's going to be a great race!

Pacific Northwest Postcard

Steve and I are in Seattle. I'd never visited before and it's a lovely city, very green with lots of beautiful sunshine. We spent our first two days here as tourists: visiting the Seattle Art Museum, riding the ferry (where I snapped the photo below), shopping at Pike's Place Market to get fresh steamed crab, picnicking overlooking the Puget Sound.

Today I got up at 3:30 A.M. to run in the inaugural Rock and Roll Seattle Marathon & Half Marathon. I had two happy surprises during the race. First, I spotted a bald eagle during the run. Actually, I spotted a bunch of people taking pictures of something in a tree. Those people pointed out the eagle. If you've never seen one in its natural habitat, the bald eagle is a beatiful, majestic bird.

The second happy surprise was having my first decent run in months. I was slow, but I wasn't in pain. I've been running with injuries to both feet since last December. It's crazy, but I've run 8 half marathons on aching heals. Today, it took me a long time to start running well. I was into mile 2 before I felt limber, but once I got going I got stronger every mile. I finished 13.1 miles feeling better than I had at mile 2. As I neared the finish line I realized I wasn't running in pain. Honestly, I started to cry because I was so thankful.

After the race, we met up with Steve's parents who spent the day showing us Seattle. Steve's stepmom grew up here and she drove us to all the good spots: a locals only restaurant for lunch, then out to Leschi Park on the shore of Lake Washington, up the hills in the Queen Anne neighborhood for a fantastic view of the city. Tomorrow we're hoping to visit the aquairum and some other spots before we hop our flight home.

As much fun as the tourist stuff has been, I'll always remember Seattle as the place a was reminded of what it's like to fun joyfully. I'll be sorry to leave tomorrow.

It's Still Rock N Roll To Me

San Diego Roll Marathon weekend...so much good. My #1 memory of this weekend will be seeing my mentees enter the Pasta Party (if you've done TNT you know what I'm talking about). A very close second will be seeing them cross the finish line and wearing their finishers' medals. This season has been tough since I've been hobbled by injuries, but was all so worth it to see my teammates reach their goal. I'm a little hoarse from cheering for people all day.

My personal race got ugly at mile 8ish. My calves were miserable, but Dr. Chad had warned me that it might be a particularly uncomfortable race for me. I'm lucky I got as far as I did before the pain forced me to walk to the finish. Ah well.

Cheers to Steve who was a rock star supporter all weekend. Steve, thanks for hauling us to the starting line at 5 a.m and for putting up with the driving/parking nightmare of reaching three locations on the course when every road in town seemed to be closed for the marathon. You're a rock star - for reals!

Race Notes: Country Music Half Marathon and Avenue of the Giants.

Two races, eight days.

Country Music Half Marathon - The race was hot and hilly. Not steep hills, but constant rolling hills. The entire race was going up or down; there were no flats. My nutrition was a mess. Sometimes the heat gives me nausea and I can't eat, then I bonk. Other times, the heat makes me ravenous. That's what happened here. I was through my entire stash of Gu's and trail mix by mile 7. Thankfully, Nashvillians were giving nibbles along the course (including a yummy, ice cold beer at mile 9).

Overall, this was a very sloppy race for me. I never really got tired, but I wasn't putting in much effort. It was great to go slowly through my old neighborhoods. No regrets.

Avenue of the Giants - I planned to walk this entire course since I was doing it with TNT walk alumni including Steve. My absolute favorite race ever - the California redwoods are magnificent and you have a few hours to simply enjoy the peace and beauty of the forest. Dear Heavens, I want to do this race every year.

Also, the Avenue is surely the recipient of the most improved finishers medal. Last years was sort of lame - that part in the center is a sticker. This years is lovely - also, great tee shirts.

Vacation - Destination 1, Nashville

Steve and I are on a vacation with the oddest itinerary. The destinations were picked because I had back to back races which required travel. We decided to simply take the week off and go from one race to the next without going home between.

First stop, Nashville, Tennessee for the Country Music Marathon. I lived in Nashville for a few years, but I haven't been back in over a decade. This is an ambitious town, but it remains absolutely Southern and charming. When I lived here, I interned briefly with Nashville Sports Council. Of course, there weren't many sports in Nashville then, just an triple A ball club and college sports, but no big events or pro teams. Setting up a non-profit to bring big time sports to twang town was dreaming big. A decade later, Nashville has an NFL team and its new stadium downtown, an NHL team and its new downtown arena, a marathon with 30,000 participants and it was picked to host the Women's Final Four. The economic impact to Nashville - over $340 million dollars over 14 years.

While I've been gone Nashville has also built the Country Music Hall of Fame and one of the premier Symphony venues in the country. Everything they are building is downtown within walking distance of each other. That's Nashville, growing, ambitious but still very charming.

We've had a wonderful couple of days here. We've been busy, but not overwhelmed. Steve got here late on Friday night, we had a quick dinner from the Bar-Be-Cutie then went to sleep. On Saturday, I did the race in the morning. Typical to Nashville's partyin' style, neighborhoods turned the race into a big cookout / breakfast cocktail party. After the race, we hung out at Bongo Java for coffee and a view of the Nun Bun, visited the Parthenon, then sat on the lawn at Centennial Park and listened to the Dave Matthews concert going on across the street at Vanderbilt's Football stadium. On Sunday we visited Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum of Art, had a fabulous dinner downtown and capped the night honkytonking at Tootsies Orchid Lounge. Monday we had breakfast at the Loveless Cafe (oh, how I had missed those biscuits) and then hiking woods at Percy Warner park. Then we went to see that AAA club, the Nashville Sounds, who have completely redone their stadium. Before heading in for the night we walked to the Tennessee State Capitol and then on the see the grandeur of the Hermitage Hotel.

We'd still like to squeeze in visits to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman, the Center for Visual Arts, dinner on the riverboat, listening to songwriters' night at the Bluebird Cafe, stops at Belmont and Belle Meade Mansions, a visit to the "other" Hermitage, a drive to Lynchburg to visit Jack Daniels and meals at about 5 barbecue places that I've missed.

Alas, we leave tomorrow.

Race Report - Rock N Roll Arizona

This was a great trip and a fun race.

I got to stay with my friend Erica which was very cool. I hadn't seen Erica since Leia and Jim's wedding two years ago. It was awesome to hang out and catch up. Erica's husband was out of town, but her three super-dogs were home to keep us amused.

On race morning, Erica woke up at o'dark o'clock and drove me to the starting line - what a luxury. Normally, I'm trying to find the parking and starting line on my own. It was great to have a local take on that chore. Once Erica dropped me at the start, she drove to the finish line and rode her bike back to watch the race.

The half marathon started at an entirely civilized 8:30am. I felt pretty strong and was having a nice morning. I ran into Erica somewhere in the first few miles. It's so nice to see a familiar face on the course.

There was really good course support with lots of people out cheering. My favorite cheering section was the belly dancers. There should be more belly dancing at my events.

Around mile 6 my foot started to twinge, but it was no where near the hobbling pain I had in Dallas in December. From there to the end of the race I nursed it a bit - not running hard or pounding my foot. At mile 8, I met up with Stacy from the NYC chapter of TNT. She was nursing a cranky IT band (I've been there). She and I chatted and zipped through the last few miles together.

For once, I had my nutrition precisely right and I was strong all day. I had my usual pre-race rice krispy treat, a tiny bit of trail mix on the course, about half of a Gu at mile 9 and Cytomax at every aid station. I'd heard that Cytomax was the best drink and now I completely believe it. That stuff rocks.

At the end of the of the race, I met up with Erica and we had an ice cold beer. Oh, sweet, delicious beer. After that it was a nice lunch and a plane home to San Diego.

Like I said, a great trip and a fun race.

Dear Steve,

I'm at the Arizona marathon expo and I have some bad news for you. I know I promised you that I wouldn't add more races in 2009. Unfortunately, the race series I'm committed to completing added one more race for me.

Rock N Roll Las Vegas - December 6, 2009.

Mom, Dad, Aunt Sally - can I presume you'll be attending this one?

Bonus!

As we were watching the Chargers throw away the game against the Steelers it occurred to me - Philadelphia (Yeah!) is playing in Phoenix next week. I'm doing a half marathon in Phoenix next weekend.

I'm running a half marathon the day of the NFC Championship in the host city. Oh, this should be fun.

Do you think my fabulous hostess, Erica would be upset if I showed up in full Eagles garb?

2009 Races

✔ P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Sunday, January 18 - Phoenix, AZ

✔ Carlsbad Marathon & Half-Marathon
Sunday, January 25 - Carlsbad, CA

✔ Surf City USA Marathon
Sunday, February 1 - Huntington Beach, CA

✔ Disney Princess Half Marathon
Sunday, March 8 - Disney World, FL

✔ Pasadena Marathon
Sunday, March 22 - Pasadena, CA

✔ Carlsbad 5000
Sunday, April 5 - Carlsbad, CA

✔ Country Music Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Saturday, April 25 - Nashville, TN

✔ Avenue of the Giants Marathon
Sunday, May 4 - Humboldt, CA

✔ San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon
Sunday, May 31 - San Diego, CA

✔Rock N Roll Seattle
Saturday, June 27 - Seattle, WA

✔ Rock N Roll Chicago
Sunday, August 2 - Chicago, Il

✔ Disneyland Half Marathon
Sunday, September 6 - Anaheim

✔ Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Sunday, November 15 - San Antonio, TX

✔ Rock N Roll Las Vegas
December 6, 2009 - Las Vegas, NV.

2009 Races

Steve and I have been working on the 2009 race calendar for weeks. I want to do the full Rock Star series. I've already purchased entries to the Avenue of the Giants and Disney Princess races. Steve also wants to do 4 or 5 century rides and a triathlon. I'm mentoring the Peak Performance team through January (at least). He's mentoring the cycle team from February until June. If we aren't careful, then every single weekend will be filled with endurance training or races. A solid year of non-stop endurance activities - now that's exhausting!

Here are the races I'll finally settled on for 2009. I'll probably drop Napa-to-Sonoma just so we can get a rest during July.

Wish me luck!



P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Sunday, January 18 - Phoenix, AZ

Carlsbad Marathon & Half-Marathon
Sunday, January 25 - Carlsbad, CA

Surf City USA Marathon
Sunday, February 1 - Huntington Beach, CA

Disney Princess Half Marathon
Sunday, March 8 - Disney World, FL

Country Music Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Saturday, April 25 - Nashville, TN

Avenue of the Giants Marathon
Sunday, May 4 - Humboldt, CA

San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Sunday, May 31 - San Diego, CA

Rock N Roll Seattle
Saturday, June 27 - Seattle, WA

Napa-to-Sonoma Wine Country Half
Sunday, July 20 - Sonoma, CA

Rock N Roll Chicago
Sunday, August 2 - Chicago, Il

America's Finest City Half Marathon
Sunday, August 16 - San Diego, CA

Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon Virginia Beach
Sunday, September 6 - Virginia Beach, VA

ING Philadelphia Distance Run
Sunday, September 20 - Philadelphia, PA

Rock 'n' Roll San Jose 1/2 Marathon
Sunday, October 4 - San Jose San Jose, CA

Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Sunday, November 15 -San Antonio, TX

My Name Is Christine and I'm a Race-a-holic

I was posting over at RunnersWorld.com and realized I've signed up for half marathons for 3 straight weekends.

Sunday, January 18 - Rock 'n' Roll Arizona
Sunday, January 25 - Carlsbad Half-Marathon
Sunday, February 1 - Surf City

I need to get into some sort of 12-step program for half marathon addicts. Of course, if I ran 12 steps I'd want a finishers medal at the end.

Sweet Home Chicago

Elite Racing announced the new location today.

Rock 'n' Roll Chicago Marathon & 1/2 Marathon - August 9

Chicago is August? Won't that be humid and yucky? Who am I kidding? I'm SOOO there.

Where Will They Rock Next?

The Rock N Roll Marathons are on a roll. They are taking over the running world and I love them for it. For 2009, they are already adding Seattle and it looks like they're adding another one too.

http://www.wherewilltheyrocknext.com/

Woo Hoo. Register a guess now and they'll send you an awesome promo for the race. (For Seattle it was half off the cost of registration (which I missed due to a hotmail snafu).

Rock & Roll Fantasy

For the last year, I've been mulling over doing the full Rock Star series of marathons in 2009. Elite Racing does a great job putting together the Rock N Roll Marathon series and the medals are fantastic.

I'd love to do it, but the it'll be a lot of solo travel. Steve isn't doing these events, because he'll be doing century rides next year. That's a bummer because each Roll N Roll event ends with a rock concert. It's a strange and cool array of artists - the B-52s, Seal, Gin Blossoms, Kool and the Gang. It'll be a lot less fun to do the events alone.

So I've been mulling it over...want to do them, but it's a big commitment in time and travel. When I picked up my race number last week in San Francisco, there was a promo table for all of the Rock N Roll events - with a coupon for 10 dollars off on the entry fee for Phoenix. Well sure, if there's a coupon I guess I'll do it.

Race Series for 2009

P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Phoenix, AZ - January 18

Surf City USA Marathon
Huntington Beach, CA - February 1 (Completes the California Dreamin' Triple Crown)

Country Music Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
Nashville, TN - April 25

Avenue of the Giants
Humboldt, CA - May 3

San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon
San Diego, CA - May 31

Rock N Roll Seattle
Seattle, WA - June 27

Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach, VA - September 6

ING Philadelphia Distance Run
Philadelphia, PA - September 20

Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon San Jose
San Jose, CA - October 4

Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon & 1/2 Marathon
San Antonio, TX - November 15

Already a full schedule and I haven't even mentioned the New York Marathon and Nike Women's Marathon both of which I'll do if I get a lottery spot for the event. If I get a spot in New York, then I'll do Chicago too and knock out 2 of the World Marathon majors. Once you start training for a full marathon, you may as well crank through a few. I'd also love to do Big Sur, Napa-to-Sonoma and Palm Springs - just for the stunning scenery. Then there are the local events: Carlsbad, La Jolla, America's Finest City and IronGirl.

And well, there's the Lavaman Triathlon only 2 days before my birthday.