Run Amok with the Loch Ness Monster!

It's time to dig out your passport and start thinking about packing for our Run Amok Tours trip to run the Loch Ness Marathon on October 8! We'll fly into Edinburgh and make our way up through the Highlands to Inverness, a lovely little village right on the River Ness. After a few days of relaxation, we'll run the famed Loch Ness Marathon route along the banks of the loch.

And if we're lucky, Nessie will come out for a visit!

After the marathon we'll have time to toast our accomplishments over some haggis and ale (the haggis is optional, of course, but I highly recommend it.) We'll then return to Edinburgh for a day in what I think is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, before heading home to the U.S. to show off our medals.

If you have never done an international run, I highly recommend this one. The organization is great, and the race itself is small and friendly. The views along the marathon course are stunning, as is the train ride through the Highlands. And if you like single malt scotch, well, this is the trip for you.

We're in the process of signing up for the trip right now, so if you are interested, please send an email to info@runamoktours.com and we'll get more information out to you.

2 marathons, 2 countries, 2 weeks

Is your running getting boring? Are you feeling uninspired, unmotivated, unchallenged?

How about running not one, but TWO international marathons within one week? I'm talking about the Copenhagen (Denmark) Marathon on May 24, 2009, and the Edinburgh (Scotland) Marathon on May 31, 2009.

Run Amok Tours is now taking applications for this two-for-one marathon-fest...Think about it: wouldn't it be awesome to run two marathons in two entirely different countries in just 7 days?

It's really not as difficult as it might sound. I can speak from experience, having done both of these last year. Both courses are fairly flat. The races are small and well-organized, and in between races you can sit on canal boats and double-decker buses and do your sightseeing while you recover. Each country is fascinating and novel and unique.

And when you sign up for both trips, you'll get a screaming deal on the price, since a large part of the cost of travel is the flight from the U.S. to Europe. All the logistics will be taken care of - airport transfers, hotels, getting you to the expo, getting you to the start line, and just as important, getting you to the victory celebration after the races!

It's a unique opportunity that you won't want to miss, and you won't regret it. Please join me for this excellent adventure! Check out my website, www.runamoktours.com, for more information and to contact me.

For those readers who wonder where I got an idea like this, I am a proud Marathon Maniac (TM). For more information about how I got hooked, you can read my blog post of May 8, 2008. And you can visit the official website at www.marathonmaniacs.com to find out more about people who just love to run marathons.

You've got 18 weeks to train - good luck, and see you in Copenhagen! And Edinburgh!

The Straight Poop

It's unwise to run 13 miles on a Monday after taking several weeks off and throwing in a few 4- and 5- milers the previous week. As a coach and a runner, I know this.

It's even more unwise to do the above workout when one spent the Friday, Saturday and Sunday just prior doing a fruit/vegetable juice cleanse. But, I needed to get the miles in. At the end of my 13 today, I was light-headed, dizzy and nauseous, which never happens to me. The last 3 miles were like a death march.

Here's the story: Like many patriotic Americans, I ate and drank my way through the holidays. And like many Portland residents this December, any efforts to move around outside the confines of my house were stymied by feet of snow and piles of slush. The subsequent cabin fever led to too many nights trudging the 8 minutes to the nearest open business - which was always a bar - where far too many pints of microbrews were imbibed and far too many frito pies followed.

(So terrible for you, but so good on a cold winter's night. I'm not condoning it for anyone - just telling you the facts.)

So when my 3-week running break/food-beer binge was over, I felt a need to purge myself of my sins. I'd been on two types of cleanse before, neither of which seemed to make much difference. This time I decided I would create my own cleanse using fresh fruit and vegetables. Apples and oranges for breakfast, veggie juice for lunch, and more veggie juice and maybe a salad or sauteed greens for dinner. And lots of green tea and water.

(Of course, there was no coffee, dairy, gluten, sugar or alcohol in this cleanse.) I thought that by eating real food - much of it raw, and high in fiber and vitamins - I would rejuvenate myself. Didn't work that way.

Day 1 I felt great, full of energy and, I will admit, moral superiority at how "good" I was being.

Caution: this next bit might strike some people as gross - but as a runner and an anatomy teacher, there's very little about the body that grosses me out. You have been warned.

Despite adherence to the program, on Day two I started feeling bloated, and got mild heartburn every time I tried to eat or drink fruits or veggies. And, to my extreme disappointment, there was no pooping. I won't belabor the point, but suffice to say it was NOT comfortable. Plus, it was not expected - I was supposed to be releasing all sorts of toxins that were trapped in my intestines.

Day two of complete compliance passed, with even more heartburn, and yet still there was no bowel action. This was making me worried as well as uncomfortable, but I drank still more water and held out until the end of the third day.

At that point - three days now with no poop - I had to do what I knew would work. We went to the movies and ate popcorn. And this morning when I got up, I had a cup of coffee.

Success! One hour later, I was happy and light and ready for my run. And seriously rethinking this idea of a drastic cleanse - for me, at least. I know it can really work for some people. For the rest of the week I'll see how it feels to eat only fresh or freshly made (by me) foods - as little processed food as possible.

I will also not attempt to run 13 miles when I'm in such a glucose-starved state. I guess there's something to that whole glycogen-storage thing, after all.

And life is SO much better with a cup of coffee by your side.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! As I mentioned in my last post, I was planning to take some time off running, rest up and plan for 2009.

Well, I did take plenty of time off - more than 3 weeks - and not just off running, but off life in general!

It started with a week in Hawaii with my group of athletes I've been coaching from Team in Training. Despite monsoon conditions - winds, sheets of rain, ankle-deep puddles - all nine of our runners and all 6 of our walkers completed the distance! For many of them it was their first time finishing a marathon, and it was such an honor and a delight to be there with them to experience that unique high. No matter how many marathons you run, or how well you do, you don't ever feel quite the way you do after your first one. I am so proud of all my athletes - it was a tough course, and terrible conditions, but they persevered.

We celebrated with mai-tais and karaoke (the less said about that, the better) and then I flew over to Maui for a few days to visit friends. I thought about running on the beach with Abbie the wonder dog, but instead lazed around on the sand, went snorkeling, and ate some amazing seafood. And more mai-tais, of course.

When I returned to Portland after a week away, I got home on the day between the storms. Apparently it had snowed (a lot) the week I was away. That meant I didn't get ANY sympathy from friends about how miserable my Hawaiian monsoon was - no one really wanted to hear it. I was also disappointed to have missed the snow. Having grown up in New England and Minnesota, I love the stuff. But as you know, I was about to get more than my fill of it!

Probably because I had missed the first week of snowstorms, I was more inclined than most to enjoy the second round. Plus, I had done most of my Christmas errands before I went to Hawaii. So I found it extremely satisfying to mooch around the house, doing a little bit here, a little bit there, reading some, napping a lot, watching the cat chase her tail. The roads cleared up enough so that most of my clients could make it in to my downtown office on Tuesday December 23, except for two folks living up in the West Hills who couldn't get down their driveways.

And with no running, and very little bodywork or coaching going on, and the international marathon scene fairly quiet, there was no blogging going on. Thus, my silence the last month. So my apologies if you kept hoping for a new post, and thank you for your patience!

We celebrated Christmas two days later - since we were driving to Seattle, I wanted to make sure the roads were clear enough. And for the most part they were - the trickiest part was getting out of our street here. It turns out that Christmas two days late is still Christmas, the only difference being that the grocery store is open for the one thing you forgot to pick up.

After two weeks of "artic", we all thought we were done; but as I write this I look out onto 3 inches of fresh snow! There go the bike commute plans today - I don't think my tires could handle it.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, whatever you celebrated. Now it's the new year, with a fresh new calendar to fill with healthy, soul-sustaining fun! I'll talk about "New Years Resolutions" next time - until then, happy trails!

Still not stretching

I went on my first run Tuesday after the marathon on Sunday. Obviously I didn't work hard enough in the race, because my legs really didn't hurt. I had a little bit of soreness in my shoulders and neck, which often happens, but the quads were fine, albeit a little fatigued feeling. I didn't leave it all out there, I guess!

It was one of those incredibly beautiful December days that I love to run in - perfectly clear skies, about 45 degrees, crisp and invigorating. There was substantial wind, but on my run up Terwilliger I hardly feel it. That hill, although hard, is one of my favorite urban runs around Portland. And on days like yesterday, I could see the new snowfall on Mt. St. Helen's and on Mt. Hood as well. And my legs felt really good.

And I continue to do my part for science, and do not static stretch before or during a run. It's a little bit challenging, though - at a stoplight, of which I hit many, my old habit was to in fact do some static stretching. Instead I started doing high steps and feeling a bit like John Cleese doing his Ministry of Silly Walks. But I will do what I have to do for the furthering of science.

I'm officially "taking time off" my running now, and trying to figure out next year's schedule, so there'll be very little running for the next few weeks. Stay tuned for next year's updates on both national and international marathons!

Seattle Marathon 2008

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and carbo-loaded well on stuffing and pumpkin pie.

Every year I am reminded of how much I like turkey, and stuffing, and pumpkin pie, and then I wonder why I never think to make it at any other time than the third weekend in November. So I'm making an early New Year's resolution to do the turkey/stuffing/pie thing at least once more this winter.

Our Thanksgivings are spent on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, with my nephew Sean. I've written about him before - he's become quite a runner and is on the cross country and track teams at his high school. Now when we go visit him we go running with him, and with a group of other runners on the island, some of whom are his coaches. It's really fun to see them, and they're very gracious about welcoming us on their runs and the coffee afterwards. And it's even more special now that Sean willingly gets up at 7 am to come with us!

Since we were in the area anyway, I decided to run the Seattle Marathon on November 30th. I was getting ancy - it's been almost 7 weeks since my last marathon, which seems like forever. I last did Seattle in 2005 and it was a great experience - the weather was perfect, the shirt was great (the long-sleeve red ones that year) and I did a reasonable time of 3:41. I thought it was time to revisit it, and try to PR on the course.

What I forgot about, though, was the hills. That's plural. Of course I remembered the long gradual climb up through the Arboretum, which as hills go is not really that bad. Plus, the beauty and the majesty of the trees makes it a not-unpleasant climb. However, I did not remember the sharp, block-long downhills, or the out-of-nowhere uphills, and I especially did not remember the half-mile slog up a major road toward the Arboretum.

The first half of the race - actually, the first 17 miles - is pretty flat and benign. There is one rather nasty downhill just as we came off the Mercer Island bridge, which I felt in my toenails. Tom and Sean were waiting for me around mile 9, with some delicious purple gatorade, and that made me happy. I was on target for around a 3:35, which felt fine, even though i had initially harbored hopes of a 3:30. (That was before I stood at the honeybucket for almost 2 minutes, waiting very impatiently for the guy to get out, so that lost me some serious time. But once I had committed to the honeybucket, I couldn't leave. It's always a quandary. But it was a non-negotiable quandary that day.)

Our trek through Seward Park was nice and flat and totally fogged in. And although I was very thankful that it wasn't raining, the fog made the air rather humid and erased any views we might have had. I kept thinking the fog would lift, but it never did.

I saw Tom and Sean again at mile 17, where I was still feeling pretty solid. I was noticing, though, that I couldn't seem to keep pace with anyone. I would either go too fast and lose them, or they would speed up and drop me. I did find two guys who I ran in lockstep with for about a mile, but as soon as we hit mile 18 they both stopped dead in their tracks. So I continued in my quest for a friend, but really never managed to find one again.

So focused was I on the Arboretum hill that I was totally taken by surprise when we hit that huge hill beforehand. It sapped my strength and started undermining my confidence, so that even though I passed a number of people, I was really discouraged when I reached the top. So discouraged that I refused a donut from a little girl standing on the sidelines holding a huge pink box of them. I never refuse donuts.

I did see my friend Jen who was at one of the aid stations there, and it gave me such a lift. I didn't stop to chat, of course (sorry Jen!) but it gave me a boost up the next hill. At which point, I started to slow down and wish I could just be done with this thing.

And I did slow considerably over the last couple of miles. Miles 24 and 25 almost always seem endless, but in Seattle they are particularly endless. And the fog had lifted slightly so we could see the Space Needle, which never seemed to come any closer.

Once I hit the 26 mile mark it was just a short zigzag into the stadium, and the chance to just sit down. As I crested the little hill on my cruise into the stadium, though, a woman shot in front of me on my right side. Where did she come from? My competitive self didn't like this, so I proceeded to sprint alongside her the final .2 miles. I heard Tom and Sean yelling for me, but soon after that I fell off, or she surged, or both, and she ended up finishing 5 seconds ahead of me. I still have no idea where that came from, my need to try to match her on that final stretch. It's not like me to sprint finish. It hurts, a lot.

While I did P.R. on that course by a whopping 1 minute, I was still off my best time this year (3:37 at Loch Ness) and finished at a 3:40. And got nipped at the finish line, to boot. To add insult to injury (or maybe I was just too crabby) I was disappointed in the medal, and the shirt was dull and white with a tiny logo on the front. And today, I'm a little sore, especially my toenails. And I got entered wrong in the computer, so my results and my certificate right now show me completing the half-marathon in a 3:40. They promise me that will change shortly, but until then, don't go looking up my finish time.

Three times is plenty, I think, for that course. Next year I will just run with the Bainbridge runners, and start making another pumpkin pie on Sunday instead of running the marathon. Please feel free to remind me of this next October.

The Glady-ator

Watch out for Gladys Burrill of Honolulu.

KITV news in Hawaii had a brief profile of this amazing woman, and when I get to Honolulu I'm going to do whatever it takes to meet her.

You see, Gladys is race-walking her fifth Honolulu marathon. A pretty solid accomplishment, until you find out that she is 90 years old. NINETY.

And she just started walking, and race-walking, in 2003. According to Burrill, she saw the fireworks at the start of the 2003 race and thought: "How exciting! I should do that."

She hopes to break the world record for her age group of 90-94.

Yet another example of how we get stronger with the years, and how age simply does not have to alter our desire and ability to be physical.

What an amazing woman - we can all learn from that.

Of course, that means that I won't automatically start finishing higher in my age group as I get older...we're all keeping up with each other. Still, if it means a world where a 90-year old can do a marathon with such nonchalance, I'm all for it.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and enjoy your local turkey trot!