2015 Glass City Marathon Race Recap Part 2

     Once we were all showered, dressed and ready to go, we hopped in the car and made out way over to the UT campus for the start of the race.  The temperature wasn't to terribly bad being in the high thirties since there was no wind to speak of.  With hardly any traffic on the roads we made really good time and got there early enough to get a pretty close up parking spot.  Mandy had a friend from work doing the 5K with her so we made plans to meet her at the expo hall at 6:30.  Once we met up with Annie we hung out in the expo hall to keep warm while I did a few light stretches and some warm up exercises.  With twenty minutes till race start we headed outside so I could get a couple light warmup laps and my dynamic stretches done.  When I was ready to go we snapped a couple pics and I attempted to find my place in the starting corals.

 

    
     This year was a growth year for the race as far as participants go, so when I tried to get in my assigned starting coral, it was so jam packed there was no room for me.  People were climbing over the bike rack barricades to get in and the provided doorways in were full and spilling out into the spectator area.  I ended up finding a small hole to get in to the coral ahead of mine, which worked out fine because I ended up running faster than I originally anticipated.  I was in the corals with about 5 minutes to spare before a couple of guest speakers said a few words and then the horn sounded and we were off.

     The race course quickly takes us off campus across a major road and into some of the nicest neighborhoods in Toledo.  What is nice about running through these neighborhoods is the fact that the community embraces the race and people come out of their homes to clap, cheer, hold signs or simply just to watch while not being upset with street closers or disrupting their daily routines.  

     Around mile 2 I started to have some GI issues and had some gas pressure building up that also was putting pressure on my bladder.  From that point till almost mile 7 or 8 I felt like I had to pee, which made me think maybe I should slowdown and maybe hit a port a potty.  I almost did when a runner a little bit ahead of me made a B-line right for it, so I decided to just press on.  Slowly I was able relieve the gas pressure (sorry runners who were behind me) and my need to pee subsided.  As the race went on I kept a close eye on my Garmin trying to maintain a steady pace, all while telling myself to run my own race and not worry about people passing me or me passing others.  I would have to remind myself that just because someone passed me doesn't mean I am slowing down and my Garmin confirmed that.  

     Through the first half of the race I was holding a steady pace between 8:10 and 8:15 so I thought if I felt good at the half way point I would slowly increase my speed and try to get a negative split for the second half.  Mile 7 I started to speed up and I must have hit a mini wall because I was feeling a little tired in mile 8 and struggled to even get an 8:15 pace.  I pushed through it and got back to around an 8:06 pace for miles 9-11.  At mile 10 they had a timing clock that read 1:21 on it when I passed and I quickly did the math in my head, three or four times to be sure, that if I held my pace I was going to hit a sub 1:50 time and even had a shot at a sub 1:45 time.  When I hit mile 12, which was mostly an up hill climb, I decided to not push to hard and save my legs for the last mile, so my paces plummeted to an 8:21.  Just before the last mile I looked at my time and thought If I want a sub 1:45 I need to get a move on, so I threw on some loud fast rock in roll and cranked up the pace to go as fast as I could without burning myself out too early.  Unfortunately I just didn't have enough time to do it, but I wasn't disappointed at all because I crushed the shit out of my PR by more than 12 minutes.

     After I crossed the line I got a water and my medal and met up with Mandy, who showed me her shinny new medal.  I was more proud of her for completing the race and getting the medal than I was of my new PR!  Mandy always said she doesn't like running and who knows if she ever will, but the fact that she got out there and did it was the best part of my day.  We took a few pictures and headed to the post race party to get some food and to relax.  The Glass City puts on a hell of a spread with fruit, pretzels, cookies, candy and my favorite Gino's pizza and bread sticks.  Of course the beer was flowing as well for those that like to partake in a nice cold one post race.  We sat out in the warm sun listening to Zak Ward's band play a few tunes while we enjoyed our little feast.  When we finished I stopped over to talk with Zak, we are buddies from high school and were in a band together for a few years before school and work took precedence and we had to call it quits.

   
     For me, other than the race organizers needing to reevaluate the starting line and corals for the growth in participants, I don't have anything else bad to say or to criticize about the race.  I can't speak to the full marathon, but for the half all the water stops, but one were fully staffed and well stocked with fluids, all the timing mats except for one had either a clock or someone there calling out times and the spectator support was great.  My two favorite parts of the entire race is the view of the University Bell Tower as your are coming down Drummond road (sorry no picture, I was trying to crush my PR) and the finish when you come through the gates of the UT Glass Bowl football stadium and run the finishing shoot on the 50 yard line.  

     We will see what next year brings, but I would really like to complete the trifecta and do the marathon next year, but we will see.  I want to give a big thank you to Amanda Kessler for asking me to be a race Ambassador for this year.  I had a lot of fun writing about it and to be asked to represent my hometown race was truly an honor.  I also want to thank friend and Race Director Clint McCormick for another wonderful Glass City Marathon event.  Even though this is only my third year participating in the event I have to say you and the other organizers are a class act providing Toledo with an event we can be proud of!

2015 Glass City Marathon Race Recap Part 1

     Saturday was expo day for the Glass City Marathon and because I had to work the expo as part of my ambassador duties so I took a vacation day from my normal job.  I didn't have to be to the expo until 12:30 so it was nice to sleep in and just relax in the morning with my wife.  Mandy and I were going out to a pre-race dinner with some friends about an hour after my shift was over so she graciously volunteered to work the expo with me.  

     We arrived on the campus of the University of Toledo and instantly we could tell the expo was packed.  We walked in and were immediately met by two volunteers asking us questions and directing us where we needed to go.   We headed right over to the info booth to meet the other ambassadors, volunteers and to get our instructions for the afternoon.  When the shift change happened, Mandy and I decided to relieve the "greeters" that welcomed us.  For racers to pick up their packets they needed their race bib numbers, so we were asking them if they new their numbers yet.  The ones that did we directed into the expo area and the ones that didn't we directed them over to the tables where the Racejoy app table was set up so they could look up their bib numbers.

     During our shift I saw a few people I recognize from other events around Toledo, my best friend's cousin who was running her first half marathon, but what really did it for me was when a reader stop to say hello.  This was the first time a reader of my blog has ever said something to me in person, and to hear someone who is fighting the same battle as I am say "I read your blog all the time and you are such an inspiration" just totally floored me.  In that moment I was consumed with such emotion I could hardly say anything and to be honest I can't remember exactly what was said, so if I didn't say it I wanted to say congrats on the weight loss and let him know that I really appreciated him saying hello.  What you have accomplished is amazing and you should be so proud!  Keep up the hard work and now I'll add, hope you had a great race on Sunday.  He had told me that he has lost over 185 pounds and thanked me for writing my blog.  Sorry I didn't get a picture with him, I wasn't really thinking clearly at that moment.  

***Warning, quick side note***

     I started this blog with the intentions of paying it forward for those that need the inspiration that I needed and got while I was loosing the weight.  In the digital age when people write to me or comment on Facebook it means a lot to me, but for the first time it truly became real to me when I shook the guys hand.  Nothing means more to me than knowing that I am able to help someone like the Fat to Finish Line crew did for me.   

***Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program***

     As the afternoon went on Mandy and I were getting a little tired and slap happy.  You start to go a little crazy when you say pretty much the same thing over and over for 4 straight hours, "hello, are you here for packet pick up?  Do you know your bib number yet? Great the entrance to the expo is right this way! or No, you'll need that to pick up your packet, so step over to these tables here where they can help you look that up."  When our shift ended we went to pick up our packets, look around at all the expo had to offer and then make our way to Perrysburg for dinner.

      We were going out to dinner with my friend Katie, who writes the blog Runs for Cookies, her husband Jerry and twenty or so of her friends and family who were running on 5-person relay teams together.  Katie's sister made reservations at a regionally known Italian restaurant chain call Biaggi's.  They have restaurants in 10 states, with most of their locations in Illinois.  I can't speak to other people's experiences, but mine and Mandy's was pretty darn good.  They had warm bread with olive oil to dip the bread in for snacking, which we gobbled up because we were starving.  For our main course I got spaghetti and meatballs which was wonderful and Mandy got lasagna and said she loved it.  It was so great catching up with everyone and nothing is better than getting to talk Star Wars, comic book movies, tv shows and RedWings hockey with Jerry.  

     It was getting late and the dogs had been alone almost all day so we wanted to get home and play with them so we could get them tired out before bed, so we said our goodbyes and headed home.  Mandy and I got our clothes laid out and I got all my tech gear ready for the morning.  Thankfully the dogs settled down and we were able to get to bed at a decent time, considering we had to be up at 4:30am so we could be out the door by 5:15am.  Wow, can you believe I use to hate getting up early and could sleep till one in the afternoon like it was no big deal.

     The exciting conclusion of Running in the Fat lane's 

2015 Glass City Marathon Race Recap, next time!  

Same fat time, same fat channel! 

GCM Owens Corning Half Marathon Training Week 7 & 8

     Jedi and I wanted to start by saying Happy Easter Everyone!  I hope everyone got some time to enjoy the day with family and friends. 

     As you can see from the title, I missed my post last Sunday about how my training was going.  It is funny that these two weeks would be combined together because they couldn't be more opposite of each other. 

     Week 7 training couldn't have gone any better for me.  I got all my miles in, and only missed one cross training and one yoga session.  The only thing that could have made the week go better would have been if the weather would have been better.  I was dodging rain, fog and cold temperatures all week, but despite that I was feeling great.  Normally I like to get up and get my run out of the way otherwise it becomes easier for me to skip it, but for my long run on Thursday, I had to wait till almost 2:00 before I headed out.  I was really hoping it would warm up more that it did, but I dealt with it.  

     Sunday is where things all fell apart for me.  As you might have read in my post on Thursday I had a long three days on my feet at work, along with strength training and intervals to do on Sunday.

     Like I said I have hardly run any miles since Sunday, and I owe it all to my interval training.  I did my strength training before work and headed out to get my intervals done after work.  My hamstrings paid the ultimate price, and by the time I was done, I could hardly walk, let alone run.  I woke up Monday with my legs feeling really really sore and I just knew I wasn't going to be doing any running anytime soon.  

     I skipped all running and all workouts Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday I decided to give a short 3 mile run a try, at a super slow pace.  I got to the halfway turnaround and realized I was probably not going to be able to finish.  I pushed on, but told myself if the pain and aching got to a 4 out of 10 then I would stop.  I quit at mile 2.5 and walked the last half mile home.  Even though I had to quite early, when I woke up on Thursday my legs were still a little sore, but were feeling better.  It was raining almost all day so I decided to just relax until the it cleared up.  I ended up getting out around 6:30pm and limited myself to 2 miles, which turned out to feel really good, even at the faster pace.

     I decided to give myself Friday and Saturday off and hit it again on Sunday.  It was freaking windy as hell, but it felt so good to not have to bundle up like an Eskimo just to go for a run.  I still had a little light pain in my left hamstring that hung around for the entire run, but was very manageable to deal with. 

     After I got back, Mandy and the boys were ready to go for a walk and I thought it would be a good way to stretch out the post run legs.  Mandy is registered for the 5K that is going on at the Glass City Marathon to give her something to do while I am running the Owens Corning Half Marathon so she needs to get a little training in as well.  We headed out on the bike path at a brisk walking pace with a few spurts of light jogging.  Jedi is starting to get better at walking on the leash and is loving to pick up the pace and get a full run on.  

When we were all done I ate some lunch and enjoyed my Easter splurge on a few Peeps!

 

WARNING!!!! IMAGE MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS!   
 

Wednesday Weigh In / Tattoo Day!!!

     If you were to ask me, there is no better way to spend a cold windy day off from work than all day in the comfort of a tattoo artist's chair. Since I finished my first marathon, I new I was going to get a tattoo to commemorate my achievement, so it was just a matter of time before I got it done. My tattoo artist is quite sought after in my area, so I had to make my appointment over a month ago. My plan for this appointment was to get my race medal on my leg to go along with my first half marathon medal and get a memorial piece for our dog Stinka that passed away. I have been trying to come up with ideas of what I wanted to get since the day it happened, but I couldn't settle on what I wanted till literally the night before. My appointment wasn't till noon so it gave me time to get my chores and my weigh in out of the way. Since the whole reason for this post in the first place is my weigh in, I'll get that out of the way now.  I gained a half pound from last week, but no complaints here.

12/17/14 official weigh in

175.5 lbs

Change: +.5 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 141.5 lbs

Current BMI: 27.5 (overweight)

Change: +.1

     I got to Lucky Luke's Tattoo Studio, 1610 West State St. Fremont, Oh 43420 (419-333-8282) in case you were wondering, and Luke and I started mapping out the day. First he would draw up the race medal and then we would knock that out because it would take up the majority of the time. Once that was finished, he would draw up the memorial tattoo and lay it on me. Mandy was getting her memorial tattoo for Stinka as well once she got off of work.

     The race medal had a fairly simple design to it, especially compared to the Detroit Half Marathon Medal that he did for me previously, but sometimes looks can be deceiving. The medal had subtle details stamped in it and a metal flake blue inlay that proved to be a slight challenge to recreate. Other than it taking just as long, if not longer than the marathon was for me to run I think it came out AWESOME.  Luke managed to capture all the details to make a two dimensional image look three dimensional. No matter what happens in the future with my actual race medal I will always have it with me to remind me I am capable of some incredible things.

      With Stinka's tattoo, I didn't have a lot of room to play with on my arm and my original design was to tall for the space I had available. Luke looked at the space and reimagined it perfectly. I wanted something simple and basic, but still had some character to it. I love old school designs and that is what we came up with. We took the cross and banner from the original design I had and added a paw print and a little cloud shaped filler to complete the look. I think it came out amazing and Mandy loved it so much she ended up ditching her idea and getting the same piece.

      Anyway, to give you a quick update on my knee injury, my friend Hilary from my Ragnar SoCal team gave me a few ideas and also suggested I meet with a sports physical therapist. She has been struggling with the same issue and said the therapist made a big difference with her recovery.  With my tattoo fresh on the leg I won't be running for a couple weeks anyway, so I have been researching local therapists and plan to make an appointment with one for the first week of the new year.

Columbus Marathon Post Race Review

     Saturday morning I packed up the car and Mandy, Widdle and I hit the road for the 2 1/2 drive to Columbus for the race.  When we got just north of the city we got caught in a little traffic due to the Ohio State football game.  My parents were waiting for us in the hotel lobby and helped us unload and get settled in.  We gave Widdle some time to get use to his surroundings before we headed to the race expo.  The expo was freaking packed when we got there and the layout was not the greatest.  The packet pickup was on the second floor terrace overlooking the expo floor.  The stairs for the packet pickup were all the way in the back of the hall, which was a pain to weave our way through the tight isle ways.  When we got up there I had to go to three different stations to get my bib, shirt and goodie bag.  There was a lot of vendors there, but the hall seemed to small for everything going on.  I couldn't really enjoy the expo so we decided to just head out and get dinner before I settled in for the night.

     I really did my best to get some sleep the night before, but I just couldn’t get my brain to shut down.  I am sure that is pretty typical for most people the night before their first marathon.  I finally dozed off at some point because I woke up to use the bathroom and the clock said 2:45 and the last time I remember seeing was around 10:30.  I had my alarm set to go off at 5AM, but I ended up waking up on my own a little after 4:30.  I hopped in the shower to help wake me up and then fixed myself something to eat.   For breakfast I had three slices of white bread with a little smart balance butter, some cinnamon and a little Truvia sprinkled on top along with I a Clif brand chocolate chip crunch granola bar and a bottle of water.  The night before I had my gear all laid out so I really didn’t have to think about what I needed when I was getting ready.  

     We met my parents in the hotel lobby at five minutes to six and slowly made our way down to the starting area.  I was concerned by how far the walk was going to be, but it turned out to not really be that bad.  The weather was pretty darn good for a start to a race.  The temp was in the low to mid 40s, hardly any wind at all and partly cloudy skies.  When we reached the start/finish line we looked around for where my parents, Mandy and Widdle were going to be when I started the race.  The layout didn’t allow for any spectators near the corals pre race so we wanted to figure out where they were all going to be and I made sure I was on that side of the street when I passed them.  We took a few pictures and I began to take off my warm up clothes and get myself situated.  We hugged, said our goodbyes and I made my way to the corrals.

     The race was scheduled to start at 7:30 and the corrals were to be closed at 7:00, so with fifteen minutes till seven I hit up the port a potties to drain the bladder one more time.  A word of advice to all runners, but specifically the ladies, if you use a port a potty and don’t want to have the door opened on you than use the lock.  When you fail to lock the door it reads open and others think it’s free to go in.  After that little incident I headed to corral B and made my way to the front along the left side fence so I would be sure to see my family when I started.  The start had a great vibe to it with a incredible sound system with a laser light show going.  My corral was about half full with about ten minutes to the start when the announcer came on the PA and said that all runners should be in their corrals.  It was like a stampede of late arrivals pushing and crowding their way into the corrals.  I really think there was a lot more people in my corral than there was suppose to and I really didn’t see anyone checking bibs to see if people were getting into their proper corrals either.  With five minutes to the start the singing of the National Anthem took place followed by the start of the wheel chair race.  A few minutes later a nice fireworks display signaled the start of the runners and after a couple of minutes of slow shuffling I passed the start line and gave my family some high fives and away I went on my journey.  

     I had said that I wanted to use a pace group to help with my pace of the race, but unfortunately that wasn’t going to happen.  The time I was shooting for was smack dab in the middle of two pace groups, so I thought, I have trained all this time by myself I am going to run this race all by myself.  The first mile was awesome and sucked all at the same time.  The road was kind of narrow and with all the extra people in my corral made it really hard to get a good rhythm going.  I was constantly speeding up and slowing down and I was so afraid I was going to trip on the feet of the temporary fence they had lining the street.  That being said the good part had to do with the spectator support.  It was incredible how many people were there cheering, clapping, holding signs and offering there support.  It literally gave me goose bumps for that first mile. 
   
     Once I got to mile two I started to get into a good rhythm and was really enjoying myself.  The runners started to get spaced out and I had a lot more room to stretch my legs.  This race had some really great areas to run through once we got out of the downtown concrete jungle. 
   
     For the first 6 miles of the race my pace seemed to be right on schedule.  I wanted to be between an 8:46 and an 8:50.  I figured that would keep me close to my goal pace and I wouldn’t burn myself out by going to fast in the first half of the race.  When I hit the 10K timing mat my pace was right on schedule at an 8:49 and that is when things went a little haywire.  My Garmin started giving me what I figured out to be false info due to bad reception from the satellites.  It started saying I was running an eight minute mile pace, which was way to fast and I was so afraid I was going to burn out to early so I slowed down.  It barely budged so I slowed down some more.  I was as close to a walk as you could get without truly walking and it said I was still doing an 8:25 pace. WTF!!!  It was at that point I knew something was wrong and I sped back up to what felt like the pace I was running.  Unfortunately it was to late and the damage was done, because when I crossed the half way timing mat my pace had dropped to an 8:59.  I was a little upset with myself, but I was still on pace for a sub 4 hour finish.  My plan was to do a negative split anyway for the second half of the race so without going to awful crazy I picked up the pace and started catching up to and passing a few people I was running with before my big slowdown.

OSU Stadium

     From mile thirteen to mile eighteen I was feeling pretty good, but as I expected the miles were starting to take its toll.  I changed up my playlist on my phone to give me a little boost and keep plugging away.  Miles nineteen and twenty were not as bad as I thought they were going to be going into it.  With everyone talking about hitting the wall I was expecting this huge change where my body had nothing left, but it never happened.  What did happen was my right thigh started to hurt and tighten up.  It started off slow and just kind of bugged me, but progressively got worse as the run went on.  If I had to say I hit the wall it was probably around mile twenty two when my legs felt like I was running in cement shoes, but that feeling faded pretty quickly by the time I got to mile twenty three. 
  
     Miles twenty three and four were the toughest for me because my right thigh was in so much pain.  I changed to more of a shuffle for a little while and then tried to do more of a high step to bend my leg a little more to try and stretch it out.  Just at that time Mandy called me to see how I was doing and to give me some encouragement.  It was like she new what I needed because even though I was talking about how bad my thigh hurt, talking to her helped me relax and keep my mind off of it.  After we hung up I told myself I came this freaking far without walking or stopping and I wasn’t going to start now.  Just before I hit mile twenty five the thigh started to loosen up and felt half way normal again.  I changed my playlist again to my “last Mile” playlist which started with Eminem’s Till I collapse.  The opening of that song was perfect for my situation and gave me the shot of adrenalin I needed.

       The whole time during my training I would visualize what it would be like as I ran that last 1.2 miles.  The thoughts and emotions I would feel as I took those last strides through the finishers shoot with my hands raised high in the air.  Well I got the hands raised in the air part right.  I was so focused on that last 1.2 miles I almost got tunnel vision.  I cranked up my music as loud as it would go and told myself I am going to give it everything I got till I cross that line.  I was so focused I barely noticed my Dad and Nephew waving at me and I totally missed Mandy, my Mom and my Sister screaming at me just before the finish line.

     It took quite a while for the weight of what I had just done to impact me.  I really think the overall shock to my body and aching pain was all I could feel at the time.  I was greeted by my family who were so happy for me, but all I could think about was my legs and how hard it was to walk.  Don’t get me wrong I was happy, how could you not be after completing a task such as a marathon, I just expected all those feelings to take place immediately at the finish line not a day or two later when I was able to sit back and reflect on it.  If I had to guess one of the big reasons I don't think I was able to just soak it all in and enjoy the moment is because of the hotel.  Apparently their was a Fleetwood Mac concert that night and the hotel was fully booked and they weren't allowing any late checkouts.  I finished around 11:30am so almost immediately I said we need to get going to I could get in a quick shower and pack up to head home.  This also kept me from enjoying all the post race festivities that were going on.
     
     This post has already gone on a little to long so I think I will end it here.  I'll come back with some final thoughts on my training, the race and what my future running plans are. 

 

The Loss & The Heartbreak

 You left my life,

But you will never leave my heart!

     It is a sad time in the Running In The Fat Lane household.  We were faced with the decision that no parent of a furry four legged child ever want to have to make.  I know this blog is geared toward my running and weight loss journey, but sometimes life throws you a curve ball that really can affect you.  I thought this would be a nice way to remember our little Stinka and give you all a little window into the family side of my life.

     Back on Valentine's Day of 2003 I asked Mandy to marry me, obviously she said yes, but that was the genesis to where Stinka would eventually enter our lives.  At this point we were not living together and we had decided to have our wedding in June of 2004, so we were trying to decide between renting our buying a home.  At this time the rates were pretty good and it made a lot more sense to buy, so we started looking for our home.  One day we were out shopping and stopped into a Petland store to look around and play with the puppies.  Now I know what your thinking, a fucking pet store, but when we saw Stinka we fell in love with him.  We were young, stupid and didn't know any better, but even those poor dogs deserve loving homes too.  Anyway, we bought him and Hemi became part of our lives.

     To explain the name thing, we originally named him Hemi and stuck with it for a while.  He was trained on it and all his vet papers and his original ID tag had that name.  Well as time went on Hemi became pretty known for; well his stinky farts!!  We were constantly commenting on how bad they were.  Mandy and her family are known for giving their pets all kinds of little nicknames, and one night Mandy called him Stinka.  Over time we were using Stinka more and more and Hemi less and less.  Before we new it, Hemi was a lost cause and Stinka would forever be his name.

     

     In October of 2003 Stinka, Harley (my black domestic short hair cat), Mandy and I moved into our new home.  It wasn't long after that that we felt like Stinka needed a friend and we brought Chopper, who through the same nickname process is now named Mr. Widdle, into our home.  The next 11 years Stinka has been nothing short of pure joy in our lives.  Dogs always seem to know when you need a pick me up and Stinka was always there to give us kisses, I mean A LOT OF KISSES, even when we didn't want any.  Stinka sure didn't like other people a whole hell of a lot, but he did love other dogs.  He would always wanna play with the neighbor dog and bark at every little noise he heard outside, which annoyed the shit out of Mandy and me, but today I miss it terribly.

     I am not going to get into the details of what led us to this decision because frankly it doesn't fucking matter.  It is a hard and painful decision and I don't envy anyone who has to do it.  All that matters to us is that we had 11 wonderful years with him and that we were able to give him what all dogs want, a home with parents that love him.  He was our child, our first child and we loved him every day of his little life. 

RIP Stinka

Mommy & Daddy love you and miss you