Hydration

So I should be hydrating for my upcoming race this weekend...AFC Half Marathon...yet instead I find myself consuming beer.

Cheers :)

and she lives!

I've been lagging in the blogging department.

Partially due to laziness, and partially due to a hectic schedule. Started taking Japanese to brush up on my reading/writing once a week. Put in my two weeks at my current job (last day is this friday) and will be starting my new job next week!

Still running, still training for the Portland Marathon. In fact, I'm currently in the top three fundraisers for the Marathon For The Cure Team Portland! Still have two months to go!

Its been a while

Mon Ami, I've been away for a few weeks...maybe it's only really been a couple of days, but it seems like a long time.

R's been in Chicago since last week Monday for work and I miss him dearly. He's been texting me and sending me pictures of all the delicious food he's consuming...trying to make me jealous! hah!

Luci's diarrhea problem came back this past weekend (I'm assuming b/c she had finished her 3rd round of Flagyl a few days prior). Called my vet tech/soon-to-be veternarian friend and another friend in a panic b/c there was blood in her (extremely) soft stool on Saturday. Also left a semi-choking voicemail at Luci's vet office (they were closed for the day) and called the Vet ER and definitely cried a little while explaining the situation. She's had diarrhea on and off (on after the Flagyl wears off or if she's not on it and off when she's on the Flagyl) for the past two months (ie, since I took her to boarding that one time when our building was being termite tented!!!) Fasted her on Saturday evening and started feeding her white rice & chicken since Sunday. Felt panicked the entire weekend.

So she's been on that steady diet of white rice and chicken...and FINALLY had two decent (yet very small) solid poops yesterday (I did yell Hooray! in public when this happened) and also picked up a HUGE bag of Z/D from the vets (unfortunately this was the only size they had) The vet is hoping that this all points to a (severe) food allergy since the diarrhea stopped once I started feeding her white rice & chicken.

What's strange about all of this is that Luci was already on a high quality kibble (D/D...for her sensitive skin)!

I just want my wee lil' fur baby's tummy to feel better. Her energy level has remained high this entire time...but I assume feeling squirmish in her tummy is no fun (definitely not fun for me either).

Doesn't help that I have hypochondriac tendencies and want to take her to the vet for EVERYTHING IMMEDIATELY. My wallet has not thanked me at all this year.

Keep your fingers crossed for her :)

San Diego-a-go-go...2010 San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon

Accomplished and fully rocked! I have lost my marathon virginity and loved every minute of it (well, that may be a slight overexaggeration)

I had my doubts going into the race knowing that everyone was saying how hot today was going to be (record heat and humidity compared to recently or something like that). But it didn't really start to get hot until I had reached around mile 10.

Started off the race in Corral 19-20 with a pace of 10:15 min/mile...I figured I could run that for 3-5 miles and then I could pick it up. Accomplished that much, and then accidentally picked up the pace too much so that I was running a 9:15-9:30min/mile which I knew I would not be able to maintain for the whole race. But ended up running at that pace for a good 3-4 miles since I was trying to keep up with my friends (3 faster running males!...bad idea!)

Once we made it to the 163 (awful freeway that is majorly banked...and long...and at an incline...for 3 miles) I had to take it back down on my pace. This is where it started to get majorly hot. It didn't help that because the freeway is long, I could see miles and miles of people ahead of me (literally).

But this time we were at mile 11 or something, and I had vaguely remembered R saying that he would be at Mile 11. But he was hanging out with his coworker (who's wife was running the half...slightly different course), so I couldn't remember if he went Mile 11 on the half course or Mile 11 on the full course. Scanned and scanned for his sweet face, but couldn't find him. Eventually found him and his friend on Mile 11/15 (half/full) and couldn't be more thrilled. Filled up my water bottle with fluids I brought from home (the course was supplying something I had never drank before and didn't want to upset my stomach). And then kept on going.

I'll admit, by this time thoughts running in my head were: "Why am I doing this? Am I crazy? Oh wait, I must be crazy because I signed up for the Portland Marathon too! Are we there yet? Is my sports bra tan getting worse? Why is it so hot!!!" haha. But hearing the crowds cheering all the runners on and listening to all the live bands playing pushed me forward.

Once I got to Mile 19 I knew I was on the home stretch (albeit a long stretch). I had ran that part of the course numerous times, so I thought it would be easy...specially considering it was super flat! But no, I was wrong. We ran around Mission Bay and onto Fiesta Island. The loop around Fiesta Island was, I don't know, like 3 miles or something...but it felt more like 8. The number of bands and onlookers on the island were lacking, and it made it difficult to push through. But I told myself I KNEW I could run 4 miles and it would just require me to take things one step at a time. Oh yeah, and I had somehow managed to pick up a small pebble in my right shoe around Mile 16 or something and I couldn't get myself to stop to untie my shoe and take it out. So I ran with it in there until the end.

Once I hit Mile 24 (I think this was on Fiesta Island towards the end), I could taste victory (but only a little. hahah). This is where I think I may have hit a wall (I guess I should be happy that it hit so late in the race). I kept running (only walked when I came upon the aid stations throughout the race), albeit slowly (maybe 10:45-11:00/mile) but I told myself running slow was better than walking being so darn close to the finish. MAN I WANTED TO WALK SO BAD. My legs were building up so much lactic acid and that darn pebble hurt by this point. I could feel myself loosing steam and salt.

Finally came upon the last aid station (0.8mi from the finish line)...it was glorious! The volunteers kept on chanting 0.8mil from the finish! 0.8 mile from the finish! And I was like YES SWEET JESUS I LOVE YOU! But let me tell you, that was longest 0.8 mile I HAVE EVER RAN IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF MY RUNNING HISTORY. hah!

Came around a corner, saw a tent and thought "yes! That must be the finish!" but it turned out there was another 0.2 miles to go (talk about mirage!). Forced my legs to lengthen their strides and propelled myself to the finish line!

You know I threw my arms up when I crossed that finish line! I am very happy with my time of 4hr 32 minutes 6 seconds...I couldn't have asked for a better first marathon experience. Like with other races I have ran, I see areas that need improvement (ie, my 1st half pacing) for future races, but I finished today looking forward to running the Portland Marathon!

(I admit though, I cried just for a brief second when I saw R at the finish because I was SO sore, relieved & happy to have finished. And yes, I am currently still sore!)

Go Long, Go Strong!

On the homestretch....

Ran my last "long" run (7 miles) before the big (1st) marathon this afternoon. The marathon is next week Sunday! This coming week I am focusing on Hydrating, hydrating and properly fueling my body. I'm currently trying to decide whether or not I want to run with my hydration belt on race day. I'm so accustomed to running with it already on longer runs, so I might as well...but at the same time I know there are hydration stations about every 1.5 miles or so on the race course.

I convinced R to request Sunday off from his work so that he can come cheer me and my runner friends along the course. I'm sure it's not that exciting for a non-runner to watch a race...let alone a marathon (for a slow runner like me!) but i KNOW I will need to hear his voice and see his smile towards the end of the race to push me to the end. It would be even better if R could bring Luci to cheer with him...

It's crazy the excitement I am feeling inside to run this race...I don't know if I'll feel that way during the actual race. hah! I feel prepared...but my only concern is that I'll let the adrenaline blow my pace at the beginning of the race. (Please keep me on track Garmin!) Lots of visualization and meditation exercises are to be done this week :)

21

That's how many miles we ran last weekend. twenty-one.

Even after having ran that many miles, it sounds crazy to me. And then I realize that I will be running five more on top of that twenty-one in a few weeks. Reality has started to sink in, excitement is starting to build up and of course that lingering feeling of anxiety about race day.

Last week Saturday's run was by no means easy. I started the run feeling fantastic and feeling light on my feet. Then my stomach started hurting around mile 7-9. Mid-way around miles 13-16 I started giving into my mental conscious telling me that I wouldn't finish, I hadn't had a big enough of a breakfast (ate a bowl of oatmeal) and that there was still a long ways to go. My pace group had sped off in the distance (I had taken a little bit longer at the aid station then they had...and of course I HAD to stop to pet the adorable silver beef cake pit bull named Dozer along the way) and I found myself on the route alone...AGAIN. (The last time we had ran this route, I had also lost my pace group & ended up running the last 9 miles of a 16 miles run alone)

I literally had to tell myself out loud "One foot in front of another S, you can do this". Feelings of giving up crossed my mind...albeit briefly. I was reminded how mentally tough you need to be to run long distances. It's easy to give up (maybe a little TOO easy sometimes)...but in the end, I always crave that feeling you get when you cross the finish line & finish (Victory!). We're now heading into taper mode. (But really, is it tapering if you're still running 11 miles on a Saturday?!?! hahaha) I bought a new pair of running shoes and am breaking them in before The Big Day.

This year has been pretty memorable for me thus far...
Passed the CPA exam after how many years of studying & taking exam sections
Bought my first place
and now, I am looking forward to adding my lifelong goal of running in a marathon to the list.

I really can't wait!

And we're back...sort of.

I got my laptop up and running again...in a janky sort of way. I borrowed our old roommate's computer monitor and hooked it up to my laptop. My laptop screen is still black, and eventually I'll need to either fix it or upgrade to a new laptop, but at the moment that seems like an unnecessary expense (esp after my most recent dental visit...super expensive to re-fill four fillings yo!...and we had to get the garage door re-keyed the other day...which was unexpected)

Anyways, it's nice to have my laptop alive again.

We recently ate at Jyoti Bihanga...it's this vegan/vegetarian restaurant down the street from where we live. It's run by Sri Chinmoy practitioners, and they are all super mellow and friendly. Must be from all the meditation!

Anyways, I had hibiscus mint ice tea to drink...



And the NeatLoaf Sandwich for my lunch. I generally like vegetarian/vegan alternatives (R not so much) so I gobbled up my meal happily:




R had the curry...I think it had mock chicken in it. It also came with a carrot ginger soup (which was light and refreshing), but I failed to take a picture of it before R consumed it all. I think he was afraid that I was going to eat it all in my "one bite" that I requested. hehe (he always teases that I consume all the food in the house while he is gone and threatens to hide the groceries so that he can have some. hah!)



I'd like to go back and try the other things on the menu. There are a lot of options to choose from and the atmosphere of the restaurant is really relaxing and peaceful. I also love that we can walk there!