On 31 Mar 2010 I signed up for the “Avenue of the Vines Half Marathon” event. This will be my first running event that has the term “marathon” attached to it. I’m hoping to do this in around 2 hours. Depending on how I feel and how my legs are, I may be able to do just that.
Maybe I’ll be able to document the event with my phone and post it here for everyone to see. Don’t worry, I’ll only show the highlights.
Yesterday while driving, I heard that there is a way to make a couple of bucks…or $4 to be exact…by selling your services online.
There is a web site that does just that. It is called www.fiverr.com. Through that site, people can basically buy and sell service. Those selling, sell what they have to offer for $5. Those buying, purchase a service for $5.
In the end, the buyer gets something for $5, the seller get $4, and Fiverr.com gets $1! So who said you can’t make money online; with Fiberr.com you can.
Once in a while, I come up with ideas about what to post here. Today, I wanted to share some interesting photos I’ve taken over time. The one below was taken back on 12 Jan 2010. My family and I were just coming back from a shore visit on Catalina Island. I shot this with a Nikon D5000 camera.
Paradise at sea (by Forlanda)
Here’s a quick tour of the Chicago Marathon course:
Here’s a very motivational and inspiring documentary about common folks and elite runners, and the challenges they faced in the quest to do a marathon.
I got this from Runner’s World web site. It gives you a view of the entire Chicago marathon course.
I just finished week 16 of my marathon training plan. My long run for the week is supposed to be 12 miles. Last Sunday, however, I ended up running almost 13 miles–12.95 miles to be exact. This is almost a half marathon!
Anyway, the run was kind of tough, as I didn’t feel strong that day. The route I took would take me almost through all of Manteca. At about 4 miles, I hit my first hill–the overpass over highway 120.
It was busy that morning as I probably had to stop around six times at intersections for a green light to cross.
At around mile 8, I started to feel body aches…mainly around the knee and hip area. Note that I never felt short of breath at all.
At around mile 9 I hit my second hill–the overpass over highway 120 on Union. I normally don’t struggle through hills, but on this run I had slight difficulty because my legs were sore.
With my legs sore, I had to continue to focus on maintaining my runing form just so that I can continue to run efficiently.
At close to the 12.95 mile mark, I had to stop as someone’s pit bull dog was loose. I had to walk so as not to induce the chase instinct of this animal. I waited until the dog left before I continued on to finish my run.
I finished the run at an average pace of 9:30 per mile. Total time was 2 hours and 3 minutes. This means that my marathon time could be around 4 hours and 30 minutes. We’ll see how my training goes and how my body builds up for this endurance test.
Now on to week 17!
I just finished week 14 of my marathon training plan. I ran this in Tracy around a man made lake with a one mile running route.
This was tough run. It got warm as the sun was completely out. And having to run in circles 11 times made the run less interesting. The various people I saw there varied the view a bit.
The 12th mile comes from half mile to reach the route and to get back.
I realized here that the shorts I was wearing won’t be the one I’ll be wearing on marathon day as it caused me irritation in my inner right thigh.
Today I felt that feeling when your body no longer has immediate energy availabe. My body was starved!
On to week 15!
This morning’s run was my longest long run to date. For some reason I could not maintain a steady pace. The Nike+ graph showed I was bouncing all over the place in terms of speed. I’m not sure why. I think part of it is because I was drinking mixed water-cranberry juice. I was too worried about spilling the drink on my clothes for fear it will stain permanently. On top of that, the drink didn’t help much to quench my thirst; as a matter of fact, it dried up my mouth or lips. I also dropped the bottle and had to go back a few feet to recover it.
This is the first time I’ve run this particular route. The bad part about it is that some parts of the route don’t have sidewalks. I had to run on the dirt a couple of times to avoid oncoming traffic. I also heard many barking dogs. I’m always afraid that one of them will run after me. Of course I’m always thinking that if a dog ever attacked me, the best thing to do is to stand my ground and see if I can scare the dog. I always thought that if it doesn’t back down, that I’ll have to hurt the dog just to show it not to mess with me; fortunately, I’ve not had any bites.
Mile 7 and 8 were tough. That’s when I started to feel the tiredness of my gluts and knees. I remember feeling this when I did the 8+ mile route for the first time. My gluts were sore, but I concentrated more and more on my stride. With about 1 mile left, I slowly increased my pace. Then with about a half mile left, I sped up even more. I completed the 10.5 mile run in 1 hour and 38 minutes.
I might just have a chance at doing the marathon in less than 4:30:00.
OK…the Chicago Marathon is still several months away. Just so that I don’t forget, I’m posting this video I found on Runner’s World:
I hope anyone who finds this, finds it useful.