ING NYC Marathon

Twelve more days until the NYC Marathon. And in celebration I am going to post daily quotes from the 1977 “Complete Book of Running by James E. Fixx. The first book I owned as a Junior High School beginning miler. Reading it today is a refreshing and simple look back into the uncomplicated days of running.

“Of course runners feel better; become thinner; probably live longer; have a better sex life, and drink and smoke less than their sedentary companions, but they are also likely to acquire a “high” from running, increased their self-esteem, be better able to cope with pressure and tension, feel surges of joy, discover that apparently insoluble problems dissolve, and even achieve, however temporary, a state of serenity that carries over into their daily lives.”

Thank you Jim Fixx.

What I did on my summer vacation

Summer 2012 I drove to New Mexico over a 4 day period with dogs in the car.

I stopped along the way to look at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX

I ran a half marathon trail race called, “Run the Caldera” in the Jemez Mountains. I placed 7th in my AG.

I hiked the Truchas Peaks.

I hiked Wheeler Mountain the tallest in New Mexico, about 3 times, maybe 4.

I built tables for my new studio in Abiquiu, NM

I taught a little workshop to good friends in my studio.

I climbed my first 14,000 mountain, Sneffles in CO.

and my second, La Plata also in CO.

and my third and fourth Challenger and Kit Carson but I don’t have photos.

I bought 8 tons of pretty dirt for landscaping.

I put up 400 feet of fence, both field fence and coyote fence.

I went to the Lowrider Car show in Espanola.

I did a lot of trail running with the Santa Fe Striders.

I climbed the Pedernal in Abiquiu and saw a horned toad.

 

Then went back to climb it again.

I watched a lot of storms.

And I had a really good time!

Artist Talk

Wednesday July 5th I will be giving a talk about my art practice as part of the Abiquiu Inn Lecture Series, Hwy 84, Abiquiu, NM. 7pm!

When not running

When I am not actively running, I think about running. The toughest part about being in my NM hideaway is all the chores I have, like table making, fence building and weed pulling, not to mention my pretty extreme isolation. So to remedy almost all of things I bring you my first Desert Functional Fitness  video:

Results are In

So how did this sea leveler content at 8,800 ft. Run the Caldera? A bit better than average.
7th in AG out of 22
28th female out of 107
89th runner out of a total of 222 male/female.
Next year will be much better!

A 2.5-hour 1/2 marathon, Ha, No Way

Last week during the mountain run with my buddies, one guy said, while laughing “Get ready for your first 2.5 hour 1/2 marathon.” I thought he was joking, how in the world could it take 2.5 hours to run 13 miles?Well today I can tell you.

I was excited to “Run the Caldera”.  In case you don’t know, a Caldera is a collapse of land following a volcanic eruption.

Each year there is a 10k, 1/2 marathon and marathon. The actual race, at least the 1/2 does not go into the Caldera but rather it is run in the mountains, beginning at 7,853 ft and going to 8,857 ft.  I checked out the times from last year, to see who the competition was. The fastest woman was 1:45, the second fastest 2:01. The fastest man 1:39 second fastest man 1:47.  The fastest woman in my age group ran a 2:18. Wow, I thought, this is really slow. I should do okay; my last 1/2 was 1:44 on the road, and so on the trail I figured 2:00 or 2:10. I failed to look up who these people are, only their times.  Boy am I naive.

I scouted the start the day before. It is 63 miles from home and I wanted to make sure I got there on time. It was a beautiful drive that goes through the slightly creepy slightly intriguing Los Alamos. It only took 1.5 hours to get there and was easy to find.

Race morning I woke nauseous and with overactive intestines. I could not eat anything and was most worried about dehydration. I woke several times during the night with a dry mouth but I continued to drink electrolyte water, maybe too much electrolyte water. In the morning I ran the dogs, got dressed and was out the door. I felt better during the drive. I arrived five minutes after the marathon, and had just under an hour to wait for my start. During that time I ate a banana, went to the port-o-john four times and jogged for about ten minutes and did a few drills.

At the line up, everyone stood around casually. The only people to go right to the start line were Los Alamos Cross Country high school boys. We were given directions that we would run on logging roads, over a substantial amount of grassy fields without any trails, up extremely steep inclines of soft sand and rocks and over rivers. He forgot to mention though a field of prairie dog homes with random big holes. I had been forewarned to walk the hill and that I will catch back up to the people who tried to run them, and that was my plan.

I started easy and slow, taking my time. My first mile was very slow, a 9:44 but by mile 4 my overall average was 9:15 as I was able to speed up to 8:00.  I thought if I could average 9:15′s miles give or take I could finish in around 2 hours. Then the big hills started. In the next two miles I climbed just under 1,000′ and was at 8,857′ of elevation. Mile 6 and 7 took me 13:30 and 18:21. The hill was so steep I was almost on my hands and knees. The ground was soft sand filled with rocks. It was a slow going but with awesome views of the mountains. For the next two miles the decent started but my technical downhill running on rocks and soft sand is not good so I was not able to take advantage of it. In mile 10 I went back up 254 feet. And speaking of feet, mine were killing me! I have to buy trail shoes. The bottoms of my feet hurt, my hips hurt, my quads hurt, everything hurt and I was alternating walking and trotting. I met lovely women from Albuquerque. She talked about the trails in ABQ and invited me to come down.  I passed her on the downhills but she later caught up with me on the grassy flats and took off. I could not catch her.

In the last mile I promised myself I would only run, no walking. But when faced with another 105 foot uphill I walked. I just couldn’t take it. Then I looked at my watch. In 4 minutes it would be two hours and thirty minutes. I had about a half mile to go. I had to do it. I picked up the pace, I passed two people, then I passed another guy, suddenly I saw the little house on the opposite side of the start, I ran faster. A guy hobbling on the trail stepped aside. A crowd cheered and a guy yelled,” that is the way to finish it. ” He must be talking to me, I thought.  I pushed harder. My legs got going, I passed 5 people, and I saw the clock and finished with 30 seconds to spare. My lungs felt like they had stuck together. I crossed the finish line and had the same feeling I had when I fell off a tire swing flat on my back as a kid and got the wind knocked out of me. Luckily it only lasted a couple seconds and I was handed my shiny new metal. My fastest pace on the last mile was 6:39.

The final results are not posted but I know was lower than 24th woman and beyond 4 in my age group. There are a lot of super athletes and ultra runners there. A woman who ran the 2004 Olympic marathon trials won the marathon.  Once I know the full results I will post them along with the pictures.

Almost Cougar Time

Run the Caldera

It is almost Cougar Time, I mean Run the Caldera, time. I picked up my gear on Wednesday from the SF REI. I also did a bit of shopping, a few pairs of socks, a new bike pump, some honey stingers.

They gave us cool shirts and  carabiners with cougar safety information. I now know not to run if being chases by a cougar and that if it attacks me I should fight hard with sticks, stones, and a backpack. Just don’t play dead. What animal is it that you play dead with, a bear? Geeze I hope I don’t get my behaviors mixed up.

Tomorrow I am doing to do a trial drive to the race start. It is about 1:45 away but I do not want to get lost Sunday. More driving but a greater peace of mind at 5:00am Sunday.