On Sunday Carrie and I took lunch over to the Steffey's and got to visit with John, Kim and Justin.  A few photos...

Today I'm back into the swing of work and hoping to get on the bike later today to get my Kona training back on track.

Gotta dash; just wanted to get the photos posted. (Hi Kim!)

-B-

O.K., Arizona Marathon is in the books.  I came into this race optimistic about challenging my PR (Personal Record) and I had a training plan for the period between Honolulu Marathon and Arizona that I felt very good about.  However...various issues in my life, including nagging issues with my knee and needing to give more attention to my next book, meant that very little of my great training plan actually got executed.

So...I arrived in Arizona feeling pretty good, but not sure if I'd really done enough.

As it turns out...I hadn't.  I ran the first 10 miles more or less at my target pace, and several of the succeeding miles were at target pace as well.  I lost too much time to a disastrous bathroom stop at mile 7 (never get in line behind a dozen ladies waiting for two porta-potties) that cost me at least 5 minutes. 

Also, undoubtedly due to insufficient training, I wasn't strong enough in the middle miles. The first ten FELT really slow, even though I actually was more or less on pace.  From 11 to 18 or 19 I struggled to hold pace.  I gained a bit of a second wind from 19-22 and was actually back on my per-mile pace, then ran out of gas again and brought it home as best I could.

Additionally I had some problems staying mentally focused on my race plan.

So I fell well short of my goal time.

Don't get me wrong.  It wasn't a terrible race.  It ended up being my 3rd fastest marathon and I'm sure I'll probably come back and do Arizona again some day.  I did some good things, had some good miles, I think I did the best I could have done on that day.  But the overall result highlighted the deficiencies in my training.

I want to take a moment to say a word of thanks to the MANY friends and family members who sent along words of support on this race.  As always Patricia and Maureen, Nolan, Trish, Jackie, Janeen, Nicola, Martin, Ray, "My little sister" Ashley, Mom & Dad, Dan, Suzanne, Christine and of course Carrie among many, many others.  Thank you all, your kind thoughts really do mean a lot to me.

A few random items...

• Nice expo here.  Reminded me somewhat of L.A.  Busy, lots of active booths, booths that actually related to running and fitness.  Even ran into my friend Sherrie who I met at the Maui Marathon at the Expo!  Great to see her again.
• It was fun to have an entourage: Sandi, Jana and Charlotte were here and it was fun to kick around town with them.  It was really amazing to round that final corner and see them going crazy cheering off to the side as I came in.  They all ran too (Charlotte and Sandi did the half; Jana did the full) and I'm very proud of the great job they did!  They're all already talking about training and their next races.
• Somehow my registration got screwed up.  I got the early registration t-shirt, I got the e-mail confirmation that set up my "fundraising site" (which I'm a little ashamed to say I never quite got going) but when I arrived here they had no record of my ever having signed up for the race.  Not a big crisis - I just registered at the expo.
• I had heard there was 15,000 runners for the full marathon and 20,000 for the 1/2.  Sure didn't look like it.  I'd be surprised if there was much more than half that for the full.  Maybe a lot of folks didn't show but they only had 9 or 10 corrals for the Full...less than half what San Diego Marathon usually has.
• Speaking of corrals, once again the Corral system they use worked brilliantly.  Easy to manage for the runners and keeps the runners sorted pretty well by ability.
• My "jump out at the gun and go to the porta-potty" trick didn't work this time.  The half-marathon started an hour later and when the gun for the marathon went off, the porta-potties still had LONG lines of marathoners and half-marathoners.
• Nolan and Jackie put my accomplishment in perspective.  Nolan ran 60+ miles on TRAILS on Sunday; Jackie did 12 HOURS of spinning (on an cycle trainer) in support of the Epilepsy Foundation.  Awesome.
• The Cytomax on the course was o.k.  I trained with it in the weeks ahead (NEVER DO ANYTHING FOR THE FIRST TIME ON RACE DAY!) so I knew what I was getting into. Honestly the tropical fruit is not my favorite flavor but I guess it's sufficiently mild.  Might have preferred one of the citrus flavors like orange.
• The Sport Beans proved to be my favorite nutrition on the course.  I used two of my four Chocolate Power Gels, but the Lemon-Lime Sport Beans were a nice treat.

Seen on the Course

• A sign being waved: "It's going to be long and hard but Natalie can take it! (That's what she said)"
• A Shetland pony being walked alongside the course.  At least one runner stopped to get a picture taken with it as I ran by.
• A band at mile 19 named "Igneous Rocks".  Had to tell Carrie about that one. :-)
• A "Nerds" themed aid station including volunteers holding signs telling us there were only "14,212,714 mm to go!"

Next?

Next up for me I have a few short road races (starting with the Chapson 8K in about 3 weeks) on my way to the Great Aloha Run.  Great Aloha Run is not a big goal race for me this year, though I would of course like to beat last year's PR.  At the end of March I'll probably do the Iroquois Point Triathlon again.  All of that is just fitting into my training for the Ironman 70.3 (Honu) in Kona on May 30th.  It's the half-ironman distance and though I've done a lot of triathlons, this will be my first attempt at that distance.  If it goes well I hope to do a few more at that distance and, maybe (MAYBE), attempt a full Ironman distance race in the next couple of years.

Wrap Up

So now I'm back at the hotel.  Jana, Sandi and Charlotte have headed for home.  I may get to meet a friend for dinner and another friend for "drinks" tonight but otherwise I'm just getting some work done before my flight home tomorrow.  I have an 8-hour layover in L.A. to spend with my parents.  Then a homecoming I'm very much looking forward to...it's been a while since I had somebody waiting excitedly for me at the airport.

More soon...now I need to go get an In-N-Out Burger. :)

-B-

This afternoon I went to visit Kim, John and Justin at the hospital and I'm pleased to report that all are doing well.  I'm a little tired to type up a full report but basically Justin arrived at 6:14PM yesterday after a relatively short labor and weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz.  He sleeps a lot and is remarkably un-fussy for a fellow who just had his environment, diet and even wardrobe changed rather dramatically and without warning.  :)  A few pictures...

They're expecting to go home tomorrow. 

-B-

Seems like just yesterday we were enjoying Michelle's win in Season 6 and now Season 7 is here!  I've already posted my Week 1 article over at FactPlace in case you're interested.

They say this is the biggest season yet and I can see why.  Most contestants, biggest contestants, oldest contestants, youngest contestants...lots of variety!

If you're a fan you're glad to see it back on the air.  If you've never seen it, now's your chance.

-B-

Justin Robert Steffey has arrived!  John called me today to say that he and Kim were at the hospital and that they were having the baby today! (actually, I'm pretty sure at this point that Kim did most of the work)

Sure enough, around 6:15PM, Justin arrived.  John says the labor was so fast that by the time they decided they wanted an epidural that it was too late to get one.

I'll be going to down to visit them tomorrow but for tonight...WAY TO GO KIM! (and John)  You made a tiny human!

-B-

Hmmm...I guess I need to start thinking about tapering.  Or maybe just taper my thinking.  Dunno.

For now, no rest for the weary...

...tomorrow morning I'll get up and do another 7.  It's still about tempo runs for me, trying to train my body to be comfortable at my target pace, instead of the pace I built my base at.

Careful What You Read

Nothing like reading other blogs and training books to make me feel more out of shape and slow.  Let's face it, at my age and size I'm not going to be challenging the course record any time soon.  And it seems like most of the people who blog or write about running are all running in the 3 hour range.  Fact is, I'll be running Arizona in the 3 hour range too...at 3 hours I'll be somewhat more than halfway done and still running!

I also enjoy a good book on racing and/or training and recently flipped thru Rod Cedaro's book looking for tips on swimming.  I love how they give you sample workouts to start off with: "Swim 4x1000 Meters..."  Ummm...I do 1500-2000 meters and I'm pretty much done.  Where is the workout that gets you TO the beginner level?

<sigh>

Well, hey, I may be slow, but at least I'm out there.  And I can redeem myself a little on the bike.

Off to bed for me now.

-B-

A few thoughts for the new year...

• When making chocolate chip cookies there are certain steps that shouldn't be skipped.  Such as "mix the ingredients from the small bowl into the large bowl."  Trust me, when you leave two major ingredients out of the dough the results are hard to describe as "cookies".
• A little light rain on New Year's Eve is a good thing.  Just ask any fireman.
• I've given myself a day or two off from running.  My right knee is feeling a little sore and I figured maybe it would be better to rest it.  Tomorrow morning I'm planning to get up and hit the 7 mile course again.  Sunday I'll try to do a long run of 12-15.  One minor setback I had was taking another look at my pacing chart...I had thought I needed to average 12:44 to reach my goal time in Phoenix.  Actually I need 12:23.  Only 21 seconds, I know, but that's 21 seconds PER MILE and cuts a bit into my cushion.  I figured if I was running 12:15s for a while that I'd be banking nearly 30 seconds per mile in case things got tough later in the race.  Actually I'll only be banking about 8 seconds per mile, which really isn't much.
• I'm working on accepting that there are some things in my life I just can't change no matter how much I want to.  There are other circumstances or other people involved and I don't have the power to just make things be the way I want them to be.  So I'm going to try and focus more on the things I CAN control and hopefully things will work out. 
• Two facts about my pasta salad
• 1. The recipe.  Easy enough.  Make about a pound of pasta - I generally use a rotelle of some kind.  Cool it quickly with cold water.  Add in chopped red peppers, sliced carrots, sliced green olives, shredded mozzarella cheese, some capers and toss it all with a little Kraft Light Zesty Italian dressing.  I've played around with adding broccoli, sauteed mushrooms and other things and they've generally been fine; do what you like.
• 2. If you don't cover it tightly it can dry out a bit in the fridge overnight.
• One of the things Jill said she liked about me was that I don't "keep score."  I found out last night that it's sometimes useful to keep score though...when I inadvertently gave a friend the same gift I gave her two or three years ago.  Hmmm.  Guess I must really want her to have that if I gave her two of them!

Quote of the Day

"You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit."
         Demosthenes

-B-