Officially Insane :)

Its done. I have run and finished a marathon. I flew to Italy to accomplish this feat. I say that it was worth it. I think that I was more nervous about missing my flight than actually running. There is a huge sense of camaraderie at the race, no matter who you are, who it is thats wishing you good luck, in what language it is being done, its a great feeling. I was lucky enough to meet some great people throughout the run. In the beginning it was my pacer group, since we were all part of the "My First Marathon" package, it gave us a reason to be bunched together and share our woes about the race. There was one guy who runs Ultra trail races of 50km or more, standing there biting his nails and telling me he was nervous. There was another woman from Finland who is at least my moms age but will be running another marathon soon. She had the same crazy Nike running shoes that I did, in the magenta bright pink. She was so happy that someone else had them since they do seem to be the least high-tech shoes out there compared to all the real high-tech gear that everyone else had. I, too was relieved. As the we lined up and got to talking, everyone was so surprised that I said I was from America, but when I told them that I flew from Israel they were like, yeah that makes sense. Then they would proceed to tell me how lucky I am to be on vacation now and how they get to run today but have to be alive to go back to work tomorrow. I really like listening and (more so) watching Italians speak, even though I understand only one or 2 words that come out of their mouths, I get the idea of what they are saying by their gestures.

As a true Runners World junkie, I had all the to-do's down pat. I set up all my gear for the race the second I got to the hotel to make sure that nothing was missing, the night before the race I did a chceck to make sure it would all be working the next day. I had my breakfast out, my shirt and bib number (F1293) set up, my fuel for the race (Jelly Belly sport beans and my Kidz Clif Bars), at least 2 alarms set up for the morning. I ate my breakfast and got to the transfer bus on time, I knew to go to the bathroom when the lines weren't that long and I wouldn't be stuck right as we were lining up. With all this planning and being so ready, it turned out, my pit stop was way too early... When we were lining up to start, I had to pee soooo badly! But I decided to wait until we began running. Bad idea. 45 minutes later, when we actually did start running, I could hardly move, thats how full my bladder was. So with another few women, as we went passed the starting point, we all made a dash for the port-a-potties, found one that was unlocked, went to the bathroom as fast as possible and made a dash back to the pack. Needless to say, I started last. There was no one running behind me. I thanked my fast twitch muscles tho, who got me all the way back to the 4:45hr pacing area with the help of Fiona, the woman who went to the toilet before me and who was also aiming for the 4:30 pacers. We made it all the way to the 8km point together, but I let her get ahead of me since I was trying to keep my energy more than expend it, considering we sprinted the first 5km (with the estimated 7 min for the whole pit stop, I made the distance in 22 minutes...!) Fiona was running her second marathon, the first being in Edinborough with another 30,000 participants, last year. She has a friend who was supposed to run with her but who was injured right before the race, so she was running for her 3 friends waiting at the finish line. I hope that she made it thru the rest of the race well.

As the kilometers kept on flying by, I was really happy not to be counting in miles... Every 5km there was a water station and every 8 or so they had sponging stations. At first I had no idea why I had 2 sponges in my race bag and was told to make sure I had them while we were running. I had never encountered them before but the instructions said that they were for sanitary reasons. At a certain point they turned out to be really refreshing when I wanted to wash the sweat off my face. After the half way point they started offerring Powerade and food at each "fuel" station. The clementine wedges really got me thru each 5km after that. At one point I had either caught up or slowed down (I'm not really sure anymore) to these 2 guys who were running together in matching outfits and we would keep passing each other, either they would pass me or I would pass them. This usually happened when we came upon the uphill parts to the race. There weren't that many and they weren't steep at all, but this is where I attributed my training in Jerusalem to beating everyone up the hills to. When I would see a hill coming, I would slow down a bit right before we hit the hill and then sprint up to the otherside and get back into my running/walking pace. This is where everyone else around me would be walking up the hill and staring at me like I had 3 heads for having the energy to spring the up hill. The truth was, I found the hills so much easier than the flat parts, I could see the end and that motivated me to go quicker. On the flat ground, there was no end, it just kept going and going and going (like the energizer bunny)...

Almost everyone along the way had headphones with them and there were certain times during the run that I was happy I had brought my nano along and had it tuned to my classic rock playlist, but most of the time I wasn't really using it. Since we started at least 37km outside of Venice, we had all these little towns to run thru and in each town's main street (picture one block with maybe 5 stores - something even smaller than Raritan Ave and our million ice cream stores and hairdresser/nail salons), there were bands set up. The first one we came across was when I was running with Fiona, I was like - hey! they're playing The Rolling Stones! - it was very exciting. There was some other guy singing U2 and Bob Marley, you had Sting and the Police. The best was the Kiss cover band singing in the whole get-up of white faces and black make-up, around kilometer 32. By the time I got to kilometer 30, I was like, hey there's only 12 more km to go, I can do that and I did. My dad asked me what I was thinking about as I was running, since it is a great time to reflect and I know that alot of people do. I over heard this guy, who finished in 3 hrs flat, saying to his friend that at a certain point he just had to stop and started bawling on the side of the bridge. I don't know what it was that was going through his mind at the time, but it must have been powerful. In retrospect, I'm sure that there was a lot I could have been reflecting on, it being 5 hrs and the end of my first quarter of a century in this world, but that was not the case. The whole time I was running, the one thing that was going thru my mind was: "What the hell have I gotten myself into..." When I hit the 1/2 mark I was ready for the race to be over, I had had enough and I guess I didn't think that I needed to prove anything to anyone but to myself, that indeed I could finish the distance and that that's all I was there for and at some point I said to myself and next time I will do better. There will be a next time, in a different foriegn country and I will be training a bit differently and hopefully injury free and make it in less time. I guess that means that this is not the end to the blog (!!) there will be more to come.
Now the bridge that goes from Mestre to Venice is 3km long, all flat. It was the longest 3 km I have ever run. I thought it would never end. At the end tho, there was a nice uphill bridge that took us to the 13 bridges that had been installed so that we could have a fairly straight route to the end of the race thru St. Marco's Square. Before I made it to the longest bridge I came across this girl, who I had seen here and there while I was running (I think she was the only other person running that was near my age, everyone else was sooo much older), who was walking and crying. There was another women trying to comfort her and encourage her to keep on going but the girl (I never got her name, unfortunately) had just run the Berlin Marathon the month before and had thought that she could handle another marathon so soon but her body was telling her otherwise, her quads were totally cramping up and she could hardly bend her knees and she thought that she was going to puke. So I slowed down as well to see if I could help in anyway, fortunately, earlier in the run I hadn't listened to my parents' preachings and had taken candy from a stranger and put it in my pocket. It looked like a mint and I figured that if other people were taking it, I would take it and probably end up throwing it out later on in the day. I gave it to her and as she was eating it, I told her where I had gotten it from and we then speculated about it being crystal-meth and how she hoped that it was... In the end it seemed to help her nausea, so maybe it was crystal-meth. Along the bridge we ran and walked a bit together but I lost her when we got to the end and I sprinted up the bridge as she continued to waddle on. Once we got into Venice I really got some of my adrenalin back, it was exciting, there were only 5 km left, I would be done soon. Then came the signs: "13 bridges to go!" yay! Which is really the truth since that was the easiest part for me. I didn't sprint the last 5km like I sprinted the first 5 but I ran pretty much all of it, except for the times that I stopped to take pictures of the signs saying how many bridges were left, or of the spectators around us cheering us on, or of the sites, since I really didn't have much time to actually tour Venice. At the bottom of the last bridge I made a dash for the finish line and I have to say, it was very emotional to actually be done, to know that I had really accomplished this huge feat. I RAN A MARATHON! was what was going thru my mind as I was finishing, thats what the hell I was getting myself into.

I had gotten my mom a seat in the spectator stands so that she could see the finish easily. It wasn't hard to spot her in my Nike hat and her white hair. She saw me right away and I heard her screaming, "Rachel! You did it!" It was over and I was ready for it to be over. Once we found each other at the end and I got something to drink and I got my finisher's medal (its really heavy, btw), there were massage tables set up with therapists and this long line of sweaty people waiting for massages. Right next to them there was this electrode station where they set up this machine of 4 patches that pump electrodes into your muscles and vibrate them for 20 minutes so that they loosen up and the blood flows better. It was a little weird but it worked. I'm just sorry we couldn't stay long enough for them to do my whole body. For 2 days after I couldn't fully extend my back it was too sore and it wasn't that pleasant walking up and down stairs. I think I did ok and recovered fairly well. I only need to take a nap the day after the marathon and all the other days that we were in Italy we walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. The pasta was amazing, I ate penne and pomodora sauce before and after the marathon and pretty much any chance I could get. I had gelato the last day that I was in Italy, just because I knew I would never live it down, had I not. I am really glad that I waited until the end of my trip to have some or else thats all I would have been eating the whole time, pistachio and coffee gelato.

Now that I am back and it has been a week since I ran the marathon, it feels like years ago, I will be taking it easy for this month running wise, I'll probably run once or twice a week outside and the rest of the time I'll cross and strength train back at the gym. I think that my next big race will be the Jerusalem Half Marathon in March, there is no way I am running a full marathon here, I may like hills better than flat ground but not 42km of hills, I'm not that insane.

Until next time...

Peace.

Now, what y'all've been waiting for...

The marathon takes place at the end of Week n. 16...
Here is my past week's training schedule

My 1st Marathon 2010 – Week n. 14

Monday, October 4
 20’ slow running
 3’ stretching
 5 x (5 half squats / 100 mt skipping / 100 mt knee lifts /100 mt strides)
 15’ run

Tuesday, October 5
 rest

Wednesday, October 6
 5 x (15’ run / 2’ walking)

Thursday, October 7
 rest

Friday, October 8
 20’ slow run
 3’ stretching
 10 x 100 m strides
 3 x (3 km slow running / 2 km medium speed run)

Saturday, October 9
 rest

Sunday, October 10
 4 x (30’ run / 5’ walk)

The runs this week have been done with Danielle (!) or alone with my music. Sunday, which is not up there, we ran an hour and a half, up lots of hills and we survived. It was a lot easier than we thought. The funny thing is that all the other runs that I had this week that required hills were really easy to do too... Thankfully the course is pretty flat. Monday I ran a bit and did the intervals than ran home, got ready for yet another wedding, ran home and got ready for football practice. Although Tuesday was a rest day I was working on my feet from 630am to 9pm. I think I fell asleep for about 20 minutes sometime during the day. Wednesday morning I was supposed to run at 630 with Danielle. She asked me to call her when I woke up, which I did promptly at 6 to which her reponse was "No.". So I went back to sleep for an hour and went out for the run at 730. I pretty much the same route we did on Sunday just in the reverse order with some detours. I was so stiff when I started out, and tired but, it went well. The weather has taken a great turn around and I wish it could be like this all year. I hope that its like this in Italy the day of the marathon.

Today is Friday, which means many things. Most importantly that I have a crazy run to do before Shabbas starts and since I am having at least 13 people over for dinner I have to make sure my run is done in time. I don't have any busses to catch but I do have an apartment to organize and make sure its clean and presentable and that all the food tastes good. Thankfully yesterday wasn't too busy. I had a client at 630 and from the gym I went straight to the shuk. I love being there when I can walk around freely and talk to the vendors while they are unloading the produce. I was in and out within 15 minutes got home and cooked everything by 12. Brian supplied me with a soup recipe that I'm sure came out great. It was Chevi's birthday this week so I think it calls for a celebration with some wine and amazing chocolate liquor that I have... Too bad there's no whiskey.

Sunday is going to be another independent half marathon day. Should be interesting. I will be taking my water, sport beans and camera. Kind of like a trial run, just half the distance...

Holy Crap.

So, are you before or after?
When's the marathon?
Are you ready?
What's the course like?
Are you really going to run the whole thing?
Isn't a marathon only 10km?

Enough already!

I have not run yet.
The marathon is in 2 weeks.
I am in denial that it is taking place.
The course is pretty flat with the exception of 14 bridges that surround Venice that we are apparently running over.
I'll probably run/walk the whole thing, more emphasis on the run part. I will be running with a camera, so I hope that the pictures don't come out blurry.
No, a full marathon is 42 km. Nothing less. Anything else is called by its name (ie. half marathon, 10k, 5k races.)

October 25th will be after the marathon. Then you can all ask me how it was.
MY next question will be: What now?

You crazy, Girl!

This week has been full of holidays. I don't like holidays, they throw off my whole schedule. However, they do give for some interesting improvisation for training days. Friday was a regular running day. Sunday was the reinstating of Danielle into my training runs! (Yay!) Its insane how running with someone else makes the experience so much more enjoyable and easier. I did the same route on Thursday morning and it was torture. We went for an hour and a half, with a few pit stops along the way, some pushups and situps in Gan Sacher with the Yeminites and a really, not so bad, run up Betzalel. Monday I went for an hour run, after football practice, in my new neon pink running shoes. They happen to be really comfortable and if you spot some neon feet passing you buy in Italy, its me; I just have to get used to the color... Tuesday was rest day but instead I went on a hike with Noa, Danielle and Frayda

Nachal Katlav

We had a great time. First we met Zion who helped us decide which route to take (thankfully Noa took a picture of the map, otherwise I don't think we all would have made it home...), we got ourselves organized. Realized that other than the fridge, Frayda forgot to bring some crucial supplies, but thank god she remembered her neck scarf. May I also point out at this point that Danielle doesn't like hikes, just in case I forget to add it the million other times in which we were reminded of this fact. We started on the black trail, at a nice downhill pace, enjoying nature and marvelling at the fact that it wasn't that hot. We then hit a fork in the road. Which way to turn? I don't know, maybe we should have gone straight on the blue trail but I remembered distinctly that it was black, green, blue, black. After a civilized dispute we turned down the green trail and met a group of counselors preparing the hike for their campers. They were preparing plays about the nachal in which we were hiking and invited us to be their audience, but not before they asked us at least 50x what we were doing in Israel. The plays were funny and informative but the best part was the man who joined us in the audience. Halfway thru the plays I noticed he has this squiggly yellow bracelet on his wrist. I pointed it out to Danielle and Noa who have been sharing a similar stolen bracelet from Danielle's little sister. As we are trying not to laugh out loud the plays have come to an end and Frayda is yelling at the guy next to us: "Excuse me, sir, excuse me? Excuse me! Are you aware that you and her have the same bracelets??" Guy to Noa: "Well, is yours as cool as mine??" At this point they both take off their bracelets and show them to the audience and we have to vote on who has the cooler silly band. I don't think it could have been any funnier. We went on our way, followed the trail which took a turn uphill and Frayda decided that instead of hiking in flipflops, she was going to give it a try barefoot. As we passed a group of other hikers they asked outloud to themselves, 'is she barefoot?' to which we answered, 'yes, yes she is.' That lasted until she decided to sprint to the end of the trail, because, if she already had her heart rate up so high she wanted to use it till the end. We made it to the end, made it home and showered, ate and passed out. Or I should say most of us showered and most of us passed out. Frayda didn't shower but she did pass out on my couch when we were watching a movie later that night. I didn't pass out but I did shower, right when I got home.

Wednesday was a new day. I was a bit sore and a bit tired but my feet were fine. I went for my massage in the morning, worked a bit, gave my clothing for chag to Danielle and Eytan to take to Ramot and proceeded to make my way to Ramot on foot. Running there wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It took me 50 minutes to get there and I was prepared with my running belt filled with frozen gatorade which melted and warmed up by the time I got to my destination but it served me well while I was out there. The heat was semi-bearable. The run was good, my foot hurt a bit on the down hill but not as much as I thought it would. I was sweaty and hungry but I lasted till dinner without biting anyone's head off. (I was first in the shower...) I wasn't even that tired, I could have gone for more. It will be my new route in the winter those mornings I give the exercise group in Ramot, can't wait!

Today I have a 12km run with some intervals thrown in. I hope that I make it to the last bus to Tel Aviv on time...

Next week is Holiday free! Thank god. No more cramping on my style...

Peace.

Pass the weak, hurdle the dead.

I did it. I ran the 21.1km of the half marathon. It was on the treadmill though and it was in 4 segments and it was on 5 hours of sleep and lots of alcohol from the wedding the night before and it was between being at work for 4 hours and then going back to work for another 4 hours. It was intense. I was exhausted. Ask anyone who saw me after, I was a zombie.

BUT........

Nothing hurt! My back was a little sore and it was hard to get from standing to sitting to standing again but thats just because I was exhausted. My hip was good, my foot was good. I think it has to do with the shoes I was wearing. I have 3 active pairs of running shoes, meaning that I switch off between 3 pairs depending on my mood and what I wore for the previous run, but ever since I have started to pay attention to how my body feels after these long runs I have come to the realization that one pair of shoes makes my hip sore, the other kills my foot and the third, tfoo tfoo knock on wood, doesn't really bother me at all. (Now that I've said something, its going to start to bother me...) Now I just have to keep running with that one pair and I should be good. Its not like I have that long until the marathon, its in a month (!!!!!!!) but I have been thinking of getting a new pair, breaking them in a bit, wearing them for the marathon and then having them plated in gold and put with my first ever pair of shoes, I could make a collection of 1st shoes...

After the half marathon I had 2 days of rest scheduled. It was much needed just because I was exhausted and had no time to fit in runs. I had a full day Tuesday plus a wedding at night and then a full day Wednesday with chag starting at 5 leaving no time for an 80 minute run. I instead went for a run Thursday morning at 730, way before anyone was out and heading to shul, which was kind of nice, I had the streets to myself. I decided to expand my regular route a bit and went to the Central Bus Station and ran on the bridge. There was a guy taking pictures on it as I was up there and I should have asked him to take one of me and send me a copy but I found a picture that looks just like the one he would have been taking (the sun was a bit lower at the time), all you have to do is picture me running down the ramp...

Once I got to the hotel strip on Herzl, I took my regular pit stop and got something to drink since it was pretty hot out already. I continued down to the hospital, took a right and ran down to the botanical garden and home up Azza. As I was getting to my apartment I started to see the lulavs making their way to shul. What I needed was a nice hot shower and some ice cold water. After that was done and I ate some breakfast it was time to go to lunch. Boy was it hot. I brought water with me then...

Today I have a 15km run, done also in 4 segments. 20 min warm up, 3x (4km + 300 m). Next week I'll be doing my runs at night again when its cooler. We had cool weather, for like a day, and then it got hot again...not fun. I want snow!

ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!! (Then I will officially be a marathoner...)

At first I was afraid, I was petrified...

But 3 days of eat, pray, sleep have come and gone and I have survived! It wasn't even that difficult. I think I slept more than I ate and prayed, which I obviously needed, but all in all it was a nice, welcomed long weekend of some r&r. Each meal was a little different than the last and most of them were dairy (so that means that I didn't eat much) and light, my favorite was Friday lunch that we boycotted and didn't sit down to eat which was great since Friday night we had yet another meal and we were actually hungry for it. I didn't go for a run on Friday like I thought I might, it was just too awkward to go out in Efrat and run when everyone else wouldn't do such a thing. Instead, I walked the dog 2x a day for 1/2 hour each time and by the time Shabbat afternoon came around she refused to go with me :) so instead of pulling, I let her lead and we went on a totally different route and it was actually quite nice. My foot was still not up to par and I have been using a homeopathic cream and massaging it into my foot 3x a day and after my 1:40 run Saturday night, it feels great. My quads on the other hand, are a bit sore... Thats what happens after not running for a week outside on the hills of Jerusalem. I am really hoping that the track of the Marathon isn't hilly, then it will be a breeze to run since I have been trying my best to tackle all the hills I can, no matter how slow going they end up being. The fact that my foot is better can be attributed to many things, who knows if the cream really helped, the foot massage I could use everyday, 3x a day, for the rest of my life, if my feet hurt or not, (preferably done by someone else...), and I'm sure that taking a rest helped the most. All that combined, I think I'm ready for the crazy schedule I have this week. I have an intense 18km run on Friday and since Saturday is Yom Kippur, I will be running the half marathon on Monday after loading up on food this week...

Where's Danielle when I need her???

I can handle running solo for long runs but to suffer thru the Jerusalem Half Marathon route solo is just depressing. Maybe it will build character...

Peace.

Um...Ok.

So, I have been patiently and religiously following the training workouts that I have been receiving ever since I signed up for the "My First Marathon Training Program" via the Venice Marathon. I read the introductory letter and believed that I understood it and accepted what they had to say. However, being a religious reader of Runner's World Magazine (for at least 4 years now) and building most of my philosophy on running and training by what they have been teaching me, I find it a bit hard to fully accept these new means of training for a marathon, especially since I have not run one before. Let me explain. A while back, I'm sure those of you who have been reading this blog will remember the frog like shoes, I purchased my very own Vibram Sprints. I was extremely excited to start wearing them and running in them and getting weird looks from innocent civilians and I guess I jumped into the whole running with them too quickly. Once my feet started to hurt I stopped running with the Vibrams but continued running, of course, my feet didn't hurt in my running shoes. Then my foot started to hurt all the time. I automatically went to see the sports medicine doctor in Jerusalem since I don't have the time or the peace of mind for an injury that will take long time to heal and I was envisioning the worst case scenario, stress fracture. Thank god I went to the doctor and he told me that I was ok to run the marathon and that there is nothing to worry about, I just don't have perfect feet like Zola Budd and I shouldn't be running barefoot. He gave me a little pod to put on my insole and told me to cross train for a week and then get back to my training. Phew, thats over, but my foot still hurts...And I am a little skeptical about the diagnosis but I am trying to accept that he was right and its not a big deal. In the meantime, I contacted the trainer from the Marathon and told her about the minor setback and proceeded to ask her about long runs. She told me not to worry about the week lost in training since my cross training has been pretty close to the runs that were scheduled and its just a week. The part about the long runs, which have been embedded in my mind as essential to being ready for a long distance race like the marathon, she wrote:
"My method does not use the long-slow running method. What we've been working on doing is building up your body so that your muscles are stronger and more elastic. In the following weeks we're adding intervals and a little longer distance, but the furthest you will run is on the 10th of October where I'll give you a two and a half hour workout. That said, in the ten years we've done this program, everybody that toed the line made it to the finish. With great times even."
I am usually not this skeptical but as a true Koenigson and true to being my Father's daughter, I go with my gut and my gut is telling me that something about this whole story is a little off. Maybe its just my nerves talking and telling me that I am crazy for contemplating a full marathon. Truth be told, I have improved my speed, I ran a kilometer in 5:12 minutes (11.5km/h!) at the end of a hard workout last week, even with my foot hurting. I am trying to keep an open mind and trust those who are leading me, hopefully, to the finish line.
I ran yesterday for the first time in a week, its slow going, still a little sore in the foot but much better. Some more acupuncture in the palm of my hand and I am hoping that my foot will be all cured. (No, that was not a joke, and yes, it hurts like a bitch.)

In the spirit of the new year, חג שמח ושנה טובה!

Peace.