A Day of Rest

I've been taking Sunday's off from my workouts (it is recommended to take a rest day at least once a week to allow your body time to recover and prepare the muscles for more work the next day. I have 2 weeks of Insanity left with Shaun T.

I was given the opportunity to run in the San Diego Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon this year. Last year I completed the marathon (a first for me) with Team in Training. We raised over 9 million dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society (I only raised $2500 but the nation wide team totalled over 9 million). Last year I had over 4 months of training to prepare myself. This year I had 2 weeks notice. However, I only ran maybe 4 days once I found out that I was going to get to run. I tried to look at it as an opportunity to try and enjoy myself and not really "compete" against anyone or the clock. If you know me, that is REALLY tough for me to do. I almost brought a camera with me to take pictures along the way. I did have some training, my rigorous schedule of 1 hour cardio routines with Shaun T the last month definitely helped a little (I do NOT recommend training for any running activity without some running) so, thanks Shaun T. :-)

I did not have a team with me this year, no real set up support. (A little last minute, everyone already had plans and no one wants to come "watch" you run at 6:15 in the morning.) Even if it is for almost 2 hours and the finish line is at Sea World. My morning started at 3:45 am. I woke up and was out the door by 4am. (Everything was prepped the night before). My sister Jennifer was kind enough to print me directions to get me to the shuttle that would take me to the start line (and let me stay at her house the night before so I didn't have to drive as far). I followed them to the freeway exit. There was not a "specific" ending on the directions. I figured, "Well, follow the cars and hopefully you get to the right spot." I prayed God would help me not get lost! He answered and had me follow cars into a gated airport parking lot that took me right where I needed to be. I locked up the truck (thanks Milford for letting me borrow your truck) and walked in the dark with the other runners to the shuttle and warmth. We drove for a while, I was just glad I made it to the shuttle. The rest was easy I just went off of memory from last years race. You get to the start line and get in line for the bathroom because even if you don't have to go when you get in line you will have to when you get to the front. There were 40,000 people signed up to race. There were a TON of porta-potties, but STILL long lines. I got in line, twice. I also remembered from last year where we had to drop off our stuff to meet us at the finish line (via UPS truck). AND where they gave out the free bananas and water.

The half marathon course is obviously much different than the full marathon. Last year we ran around more of down town San Diego including Petco Park. The marathon and 1/2 split at the 3 1/2 mile mark and this year instead of heading down town I went straight onto highway 163. At one point I was able to look across the freeway and see the leading man of the marathon. It was a trip! There was one man out all by himself (he hit the 9 mile mark around 44 minutes!) and then there was a group of about 6 Kenya-looking men about 25 meters behind him. Surprisingly the two leading women runners were not far behind them.
Well, I started out running and made sure I wasn't trying to prove anything. I was breathing normal, and enjoying myself. It was just me. No one came to run with me this year, so my iPod was my running buddy. I was glad to have it, it kept me upbeat and moving. I felt good the entire race, my knees did get a little sore because of the fact that I haven't been running as much lately. But, I even picked it up at the end of the race. Wouldn't you know it, it WASN'T my slowest 1/2 time. My first 1/2 marathon was in October of 2009 (Long Beach 1/2) I ran a 1:48.48, then in January of 2010 I ran a 1:42.06, and then yesterday I ran a 1:48.06. No running training, and I did 42 seconds better than my first 1/2 marathon. Needless to say I was pretty satisfied with my time. Here is the link to my results.
My alias name was Jon Baptista, my brother in law. He was planning on running, didn't really get to train so I took his bib. The biggest bummer about being alone was not having anyone to hang out with after the race, so I took my goodies, got on the shuttle and went back to my car and headed home. I was home by 11:00.

Today, Monday, I woke up a little sore in the quads and calves, but nothing major. I am supposed to complete the 3rd fit test for Insanity and then a Max Interval Training workout. Needless to say, I made this my day off and will start up again on tomorrow. Thanks again to Shaun T for "training" me for the 1/2 marathon... LOL. :-) And my family for all the help getting me there! Maybe next year I will have some running mates again (dad, Colin, Cassie??? Tymon? Marci??)

I plan on running in the Las Vegas 1/2 Marathon in December (It's $140, so if anyone wants to donate funds- ha ha) and my sister wants to run a Mud Run in Murrieta in September too as a relay, hopefully that pans out.