Puffy Stray Cats

Smells are a part of running in LA...there is heavenly hamburger intersection - Carmenita and Telegraph - where the smells from Five Guys, In n Out and a hint of Jack in the Box mix to make a scent guys would pay $1000 for...forget about Channel #5...Burger#1!!! There are also the mom-n-pop Mexican restaurants that provide an irresistible enticement to skip the run and go straight for a chorizo burrito...and yes, there are often unpleasant smells, cigarette smoke, car exhaust, and way too many dog poop piles.
----Side bar - my dear dog owning friends...is it really that hard to pick after Fido? There is actually a fantastic new way of pick up your puppies digested delights, it's called a PLASTIC BAG!!----
My run this weekend took me along Leffingwell and as I passed La Mirada I was feeling pretty good. Having traveled over 5 miles, successfully taken my life into my own hands by crossing yet another busy intersection, and noticing the down hill ahead I was a happy camper....and then the smell. Subtle at first, but soon it became so strong that even mouth breathing couldn't stop the nauseating smell from entering my nostrils. I looked away briefly and then BAM!! Puffy stray cat!! The cat looked like it had been sucking on helium…fully intact, no sign of trauma (except the obvious fact that he was dead) paws up and disturbingly frightening. Words escape me to accurately describe the morbid scene, but trust me…it was pretty gross!

Proper path planning prevents a pessimistic persuasion - the 1 mile stretch of Colima between Whittier blvd and Mar Vista look simple enough on mapmyrun.com...there are no big red arrows or flashing signs saying "BEWARE!!" but there should be! Go ahead and laugh at me because I a) didn't remember how far Mar Vista is from Whittier (it's like a block, right?) or b) that I failed to realize it would feel so incredibly steep (7%)...ok, 7% may not be pike's peak steep (say that 10 times fast) but in the middle of a 16 mile run, 7% is a huge momentum killer. The turn onto Mar Vista was a brief moment of bliss…down hill as far as the eye could see, with my bad vision, that’s not very far, but it was a great sight none the less. Blister maintenance about halfway down helped me gain confidence in my ability to finish a marathon for a little while…because 16 miles is JUST LIKE 26.2!! Towards the end of the run, my optimism and bliss had washed away completely…after suffering from an upset stomach from mile 10 on (note to self – Fig Newtons are NOT a good running snack!), and having to stop for another Gatorade about 2 miles before the end, I kept feeling like I could have done better. My goal was to finish the 16 miles without dying…no real time goal, but after hours of mathematics while running, I had a “must finish by” time which came and went, draining any energy I had left. Late start, stomach issues, blisters, running up hill for a mile straight, chaffing and less than stellar liquid management made for a rough training run, but it might be exactly what I needed to prepare for March 18th…or additional evidence that I should have gotten a chorizo burrito at mile 2 and headed home.
I still don’t know if I can definitely finish the LA Marathon, but 16 is almost 18 and 18 is almost 20, so I am confident I can finish my last 2 long training runs…and they keep telling me that if you can run 20 miles, you can run 26.2, so I have nothing to fear, right?

Killing me with science

It is done…the last “checkpoint” run on my path to the LA Marathon is in the rear-view mirror. The surf city half marathon was fun…except for starting too late (in my humble opinion, 8:30am is far too late to start a race), no cups at the mile 7 aid station and no water at the mile 9 aid station…oh yeah…and there is that monster blister I started to develop at mile 3 and popped at mile 10 with such force that it might have skewed the rotation of the earth – NASA is still check on that. My time 2:44:03 was not my fastest (did I mention the nearly debilitating blister) but was within a comfortable range for an old man like me. The fact that I have no other race on the calendar hit me pretty hard right after the race. No buffers…nothing else to work towards…the next time I put on a race number it will have “LA Marathon” on it. So, the questions start racing in my head – Can I really run 26.2 miles? What am I going to do about blisters? Can I really run 26.2 miles? Water was an issue at surf city, should I carry water? Can I really run 26.2 miles? What if it’s really hot, should I wear a hat? Can I really run 26.2 miles? Will my iPod battery last 6 ½ hours? Can I really run 26.2 miles?

Part of my concern about completing a full marathon lies within the science of physiology – facts are facts, our body was not really designed to run 26.2 miles – especially my fluffy body. First you have glycogen – simply put this is the chemical that provides most of the energy used during prolonged exercise…but like anything else it has its limits, and for most of us that limit is 2-3 hours, so when you expect to finish a marathon in 6 ½ hours you are looking at over 3 hours of running on empty and the body does everything it can to stop you from running on empty glycogen stores. I guess this is something I will experience in my next 3 long runs (16, 18, & 20 miles), but something I am dreading. Pushing through the “Blister of 2012” incident helped to reinforce the fact that I can overcome adversity, but will it be enough to keep my body running despite it’s efforts to make me stop? I guess we will find out March 18th on the streets of LA.