1:55:18

Some time ago, I mentioned that I’d started jogging. I started around Jan ’06, while in England, running along the White Way from North Cerney heading towards Cirencester. My first run was about a mile, and I felt terrible. I kept adding little bits here and there until I was at a comfortable 4 mile run. Early on I saw a sign near the start that said “Cirencester -> 5mi.” I told myself that by the time we left in early May I’d run there and back. A runner once told me, years before, that you can most likely push yourself to twice your usual training distance. So I eventually went to roughly 5 miles. I did the 10 mile run 2 days before leaving. It was thrilling to do it and the course was wonderful: rolling hillsides, a mostly flat 2-lane road without a lot of traffic.

Frigiliana, Spain was next, an impressive little town built up steeply along the mountains. Running was more difficult here—it was hot and I run in the evening, Spanish drivers are crazy and there was only 1 logical route: the main 2-lane road that services the town. It’s mostly flat apart from one long hill on the approach. I had to turn around and run a shorter course multiple times to make up my distance. Any further on the north side and you hit impossible upward slopes, any further south and the downgrade gets difficult with hairpin turns, a suicidal proposition what with the aforementioned Spanish drivers on tour buses, Vespas and dirtbikes. I never got a good read on distance but the total course was near 4 miles, and I had the benefit of doing some hill-work, as well as running in front of lots of people vs. England’s solitude.

I ran in Austin, TX and San Jose, CA before arriving in Asheville, NC. I was happy with my 4-mile runs through this time. I’d lost some weight and felt good. The neighborhoods in NC were safe and this allowed me to start increasing my distance again. The problem: N. Asheville is all low hills. When I learned about a half-marathon that would be happening that overlaid the course I was already running, I resolved to do it.

The hill training is tough. My long runs were a painful 11 or 12 miles. While at GenCon, I got the opportunity to run with fellow Daydreamer Matt Cavotta, who was training for his first full marathon, the crazy fool! His regimen had him wanting a long run of 16 miles during the convention. I’d never done it, but I knew running flat was much easier than back in Asheville, so I agreed and we did it. It hurt but wasn’t terrible—I’ll take 16 miles in Indianapolis over 12 in Asheville, any day!!

Can you smell the sweat?

Last Saturday I participated in my first half-marathon, a 13.1 mile torture-fest through the neighborhoods of Asheville, NC. There were only about 2 miles of flat in the whole thing, for the rest it was either uphill or downhill.

I was shooting for under 2 hours and my extra-credit would have been under the 1:50 mark, considered a great run that would have put me in the top 150 runners (over 500 participated, I was 224th place). The lady who beat me by one second was 62 years old! As it stands, I completed the course in 1:55, which is about 8min50sec per mile--not bad considering those damned hills, and my first race.

The time was officially recorded and qualifies me for the National Marathon in D.C. in March (26 miles) and probably other marathons, which I'm considering trying for. I was robbed: we had timing chips and I thought they would time you individually. I started a minute or two late to let the pack go by at the start, but I wasn't credited that time in the end, I was measured by the total run clock. Next time I'll start on the line! Still, that wouldn't have let me beat my 1:50 goal so I won't sweat it.

For the record, first and second place (seconds apart) were 1 hour, 7 minutes, or ~5:10 per mile (!!!). The guy who won this year also won last year. Sheesh. 2nd place guy traveled in from Austin, TX--he'll get prize money so I can see why he'd travel. And those times are without any Kenyans running.

Let’s get this straight: I still don’t like running. I’d rather be home playing videogames with that free time. From the beginning, a large part of this was vanity: I wanted to be fit, look fit, and counterbalance the hours upon hours I spend on my butt, painting. Back in college there was about a 9-month stretch where I watched my diet and did some light running and weights. I felt and looked my best, and when I fell off the wagon I vowed that I would not look back and say I looked my best at the age of 19. I can now safely say I fulfilled that goal as I am slimmer than then and look fitter. Vanity is a great motivator, I’m not ashamed to say.

The problem then was that I cannot do two tortuous things at once: exercise and moderate food intake. I love eating and I love not exercising. I cannot keep up both disciplines at once. So, with my longer running distances burning up all sorts of calories, I found my balance: I run a lot, and I eat whatever the hell I want. This doesn’t mean I eat pizza every night, and I do drink diet cola most of the time, but it means that if pizza is on the table, I’ll eat it without shame. If I feel like a burger, I eat a burger.

In fact, upon returning from my run, I ate ¾ of a DiGiorno stuffed-crust pizza.