One of the things I get asked a lot* is how I got into running.
I have always had to make an effort to not be fat. If I did not watch what I ate and workout, I would be overweight. For most of my years since from high school on, I did that. My hella foot vanity requires me to note that I was much more often fit than not in those years, but probably usually a little overweight. That is totally normal and probably better than average in this country. There were times though when I did not pay close attention to diet and exercise and got fat. The most recent of those times ended in the Summer of 2011 at 234 pounds. I saw my not-biological mother in Gulf Shores, Alabama in July of that year, and she came up with what became the SEC Weightloss Challenge. We both needed to lose some weight, so she challenged us to each lose 20 (or 30? No. Maybe.) pounds in time for my visit to Tuscaloosa in November (for the Game of the Century between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers).
I did. I started walking around the Alviso wetlands, trying to time it such as to have to rush back to the car before they close the gate after sunset (but have enough time to stop and take pictures). I set a goal of being able to walk the entire nine mile loop (Alviso Slough Trail from Alviso Marina County Park). I would walk out to the first mile marker, then the second, then the third and always have to get back to my car. About the time I reached mile marker three (I do not think I waited until four.), I decided I might as well go for it. I made it all the way around the loop -- a nine mile walk.
People always assume I lost weight running. That is false. I lost a whole lot of weight walking -- maybe most of it. But then I lost some more by running and doing the things like yoga and rowing to make me a better runner. I also cut back and then out fast food. I stopped drinking soda a long time ago. You should stop too. There is more about both of those things and other things food on Facebook. For the record, I currently can generally be found somewhere between 158 and 163 pounds, depending on where I am with racing and training (taper/recover, ramping up/down) and obviously the food and workout choices I am making.
About the time I got up to the full loop in Alviso, I started going back to the gym -- maybe a bit sooner. I had not been going consistently, since Cisco moved the gym from SJ6 to SJQ (and I was working part-time and as a grad student at SJSU). I was soon doing an hour or so of cardio, followed by twenty or thirty minutes of weights with stretching between sets. I did not goof around in the gym and packed in the sets and stretching. I was pretty darn consistent, going four or five days per week.
At this point in the story, Kate was training for a half marathon. Maybe not her first, but she was training hard and smart. She was into it. Andrea was training for the 408K. I was inspired. I used to preach and rant against running, especially racing. I had heard that it was bad for you and wanted to believe it. But Kate and Andrea got me thinking that I should at least be able to run these types of races and SJRNR, or at least your run-of-the-mill 10K, for social reasons and since I would soon be fit.
So you can say Kate and Andrea got me running. I am not sure when this was, but I think it was sometime around my trip to Tuscaloosa (November 2011). Now I want to say it was probably later than this, but it was right around this time. It is important to note that I could walk nine miles comfortably (without getting too sore) before I ran my first mile. My good fortune with injuries to date, in spite of my what is by all accounts rapid ascent in mileage and speed, was unintentionally built on the foundation of walk before you run. My runner muscles were greatly helped by hours and hours and hundreds of miles around the Alviso wetlands at regular speed. My joints and their support systems were given a head start on preparing for my upcoming assault on them. I give this and the fact that I had also already lost a lot of the weight walking all of the credit for my relatively non-existent injury history. Walk before you run. I also began walking and running in minimal footwear. That may or may not have helped. I think it did and run minimal now. I have put well over half of my near 2,000 miles on New Balance MT kicks. I have fewer than 400 miles in more traditional running shoes. I might do a post about shoes, but enough about that for now.
So, I am going to run. I run a mile on the treadmill after one of my SJQ workouts. It sucked, and I was ridiculously sore the next day. Remember, I am already working out most days of the week and doing an hour or so of cardio each of those days. And I just went on and on about the walking. But I was so sore after that one mile on the treadmill, that I could barely walk the next day. It was nuts. I kept at it though, slowly adding the miles. I remember being able to run four miles consistently. I remember the out-and-back out the garage, onto the canal at Snell, to almost Coleman (and back home) of over seven and a half miles. Of course, I remember running around the Alviso loop for the first time. I was about to turn forty and considered running a marathon that year.
By now, it is Spring 2012. I would not be ready to run a marathon in time for my May birthday, but I started eyeing Fall races. I was hearing that I should do something else, because, as I know, running sucks and is bad for you. Then, perhaps the most serendipitous moment of this story. On a flight to Alabama to celebrate Clint's marriage to Rachel, I sat next to Todd and April. Todd had done a few to several Ironmans, and April had run Boston a handful of times. I want to say seven times. They told me that the science behind running being bad for you was unjustly enhanced by it sucking. Basically, that you hear about running being bad for you, because people want to justify not doing it (because it sucks). They told me that running can be done well. It could be done right and not necessarily mean injuries -- at least not ones that could not be managed. There was just as much if not more science that running was good if done properly. I should point out that I totally shattered Todd's rules about mileage and recovery. You should not try to do what I have done. If you pay attention to the miles and dates throughout this post, it is not normal. I am not bragging or even being dramatic. Todd suggested no more than four marathons per year. I just finished my eleventh since September 2012. This flight was Cinco de Mayo weekend 2012. I was in 10K shape. So if you try to do what I did and get injured, you cannot blame Todd. But Todd and April said go ahead and run that marathon. You can find a place past the suck where it kind of rules. And they made being an endurance athlete, even an amateur one, seem really, really cool. Todd gave me a lot of advice and references for nutrition. We promised to keep in touch, and we have. April credits me with turning her to trail running and ultras. Typing that gives me goosebumps. How I was able to return that favor so quickly is a powerful thing to me. But, thanks to them, now I had some expert advice, and a credible blessing to carry on with marathon training.
So I get back from Tuscaloosa and register for the Half Moon Bay International Marathon (HMBIM) coming up that September. I had bought my first pair of running shoes a couple of weeks prior. I then got a pair from professionals at Running Revolution in Campbell. I started training with Jeremy. His sister, Amy, had recently run Boston. This was key, because Jeremy is hella fast and runs along the Los Gatos Creek Trail and in the hills of Saratoga. Running with Jeremy in general because he is fast, and in particular because he runs hills, helped make me the runner I am today. Training for my first marathon is when I got hooked on running. I met Franz, the training director for HMBIM and a grandslam ultrarunner, and was reading the Dean Karnazes books. (I was actually reading one on the Todd and April flight. I also eventually read Born to Run and Eat and Run.) I got into it. Hella into it. I heard about Western States (the 100 mile endurance run that used to be a horserace). I decided I want to do it one day. It is Summer 2012. I decided not only was I going to do a marathon. I was going to be an ultrarunner.
Through Tony, a chum from Santa Teresa High School (and a darn good athlete to this day) with whom I had connected on Facebook and connected on many levels like outdoors and fitness, I met Ellisa (also, Facebook). Ellisa was training for her first ultra, although I am not sure she knew which one yet. She was running the 20M distance at Run on the Sly, a relatively popular 50K in August in that Pacific Coast Mecca area that is centered in Auburn, as a supported training run. Ellisa and her husband live in Elk Grove, a suburb of Sacramento. Ellisa heard about my new interest in ultrarunning and fueled it in a way I now know few can. She is an evangelist for the sport for sure. She does not approach it as a sport. She just loves running (walking the steep uphills usually maybe) outside in dirt and enjoying the views -- from the rocks and debris on the trails to the wildflowers and birds above them. But she gets it. She still preaches the virtues of high speed nature sightseeing, especially as opposed to running in lower quality air staring at and dodging cars. Most importantly, she convinced me that I should run Sly with her and her friends.
I signed up. I stepped up my training. I ran repeats of Mission Peak and met Sopheak of Silicon Valley Triathlon Club. I followed Kate again and started doing yoga religiously. I did the 20M distance at Run on the Sly, starting out and mostly sticking with Ellisa and her friend Anandi. 4:29. I had my first ultra experience, with the bananas and Clif Bars and badass sweethearts in the parking lot before sunrise. I finished strong, mostly because I stuck with the runner babes until the last six or so miles. I was convinced I could do this ultra thing sooner rather than later. Rather than pacing Ellisa at the next American River 50 Mile, I was going to run it myself. I ran my first ultra, a 50K in Folsom on September 15, with Ellisa and Nick and some of my new friends from Sly. 6:14. The following weekend, I ran the race that started it all: HMBIM. 4:19.
The day before yesterday, on April 20, 2013, I ran my eighth ultramarathon at Ruth Anderson 50K/50M/100K. 5:34. It was my eleventh marathon. Earlier this Spring, I ran Way Too Cool 50K and American River 50 Mile. 4:54 and 9:03. Those are famous California ultramarathons that I read about only a year ago. And that, sorta, kinda, more or less, is how I became a pretty average ultrarunner. With thanks to Kate, Andrea, Todd, April, Jeremy, Franz, Ellisa, Sopheak, and so many others, like the trainers and staff at Cisco SJQ.
*But not as much as food, but I addressed that on Facebook before this blog happened. For now, I am sticking to only original material here. So I cannot copy and paste it on principle. For now, you will have to go to Facebook for more thoughts on food. I cannot imagine there being enough of you not friends with me there seeing this that could ever constitute an outcry for my thoughts on food here, nor the time and lack of new material to provide them again.
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