Friday, October 26, 2007

Marathoning, Detroit Style!

Last Sunday was again the Detroit marathon. It was actually the 30th running of it, but for me it was only the 2nd. Things seemed to go a lot better this time and I simply laid back and enjoyed it.

My goal this year was 3:45. Last year I ran it in 3:55:56, and crashed somewhere near mile 18 or so. I figured 10 minutes off of last year's time was a good goal. The problem with that is my training has been yucky since Labor Day. I can't begin to go into all of the details, but yeah.

I drove down to Detroit realistically just looking to improve from my inaugural run last year. The expo is always a lot of fun. The conference center is buzzing with excitement and there are a lot of sports snacks to try :) There was even a clock that was counting down the time until the gun.

Posing after waaaaaay too many energy snacks!
I must learn to go out and eat earlier the night before the race. Not only was there a race the next day, there was also a football game w/ a 1:00 kickoff so there were a lot of extra people in town that night filling up the restaurants.
What I look like before a marathon

As for the race, I went out slow. Again, my goal was 3:45. This translates to 8:35/mile. I was so doing that throughout the race. I actually started a bit slower than that and waited until after the Ambassador Bridge (from USA to Canada) to work up to my desired pace. I think this helped me out A TON!!!

At the half way mark I was 1 sec. off of my pace, which blows me away that anyone can be that close after 13 miles and change. I was stayed just ahead of the pace I wanted until somewhere in between miles 22 and 23. With about 2 miles to go I was completely tanked out and it felt like I was trying to run while Hulk Hogan was trying to grab me by gripping my hamstring and squeezing. It stunk.

Finish lines a comin' !

Somehow, despite running a pitiful last two miles my time came out to be, drum roll.............. 3:53:25. It was nowhere near my initial goal, but it satisfies my revised goal of bettering my time from last year by about 2 and 1/2 minutes.

If you click on the logo it will take you to the results page if you're interested in all of the results with splits and such. The most interesting of which is the "underwater mile" split which is taken as we run back to the USA through a very warm and humid chunnel.

What I look like after a marathon. Notice the hardware!!!







Wednesday, October 17, 2007

It's about go time!

Welp, here we go. For better or for worse, this is the week for the Detroit Marathon. I can't say that I feel ready for it, but it's here as of Sunday.

For about the last month I've been fighting schedules, colds, injuries and lack of motivation. My training has been kind of poopy as it was this time last year. It seems that at least mentally, I tend to peak out with my labor day 10k. I'm not sure how to fix that though.

I've recently found out that the finish is different from previous years as it will not be in Ford Field this year. Some genius scheduled a marathon the same day as a football game. I'm not for sure why this occurred. The date is a week earlier than last year. If the organizers would have kept the same weekend, then the Lions would be at an away game which means the change wouldn't have to be made. I think the finish was awesome for both runners and spectators alike. Hmm...maybe they'll fix it from now on! Traffic and parking should be interesting thanks to the scheduling mishap.

The temperature should be a bit warmer than I want it to be, but at least it won't be as bad as the runner's had it in Chicago. Yuck! We'll see how much I've learned since last year (my first marathon). I ran it in 3:55:55 last year, and despite the past month of mediocre training, I think I should beat that. I'm hoping for somehwere in the 3:45 range. If I can stay patient at the beginning I'll be fine. Knowing ahead of time how steep the Ambassador Bridge is and that the Rocky theme song will be repetitively blared out from people's cars will help me be a bit more prepared this year. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Culturally Aware

Here's something that I read that made me rather sad and laugh all at the same time. Last week I read online the Beyonce Knowles was going to Malaysia to put on a concert. "Cool!" I thought. An American pop artist is going to an Asian country to perform. Especially cool since I know several people that are from Malaysia that came to the 'States to study and to work for a few years.

Well, all of that has now changed. She is no longer going to perform in Kuala Lumpur because the officials there wanted her to be a bit more modest than she's comfortable with when it comes to her clothing atire. I thought Beyonce was a singer, not simplly eye candy for a paying audience, but maybe I was wrong. She either thinks waaaay to highly of herself and believes that somehow by not performing there she is "punishing" them somehow or maybe without flashing a whole lot of skin she's really not that stimulating to her audiences. Hmmm... I bet she's the type of person who gets upset when she travels and nobody speaks English. Either way the result is the same, no Beyonce in Malaysia. She will be performing in Indonesia instead

I'm curious, was she really not aware that Malaysia is a more socially conservative nation or did she think they would change for her? I applaud the officials in Malaysia for this one. If only somebody would censor Madonna the world would be a better place. I'm not a big censor person because I do believe in free speech and taking creative liberties, but I think it's a different creature when it comes to outdoor concerts. That's because one can be involuntarily subjected to Sting and the Police's reunion concert or have their mind numbed by Madonna...well doing it is whatever she does. Congrats Malaysia on not giving in to this diva and letting your cultural morals slip just so she can feel important and remind the world how loose our nations' morals can sometimes be.