Experiences of a First-Time Marathon Runner

I'm glad I waited a couple weeks after my first marathon to write this blog post. If I would have written this post the first night or two it would have been a somewhat different blog post. The reasons will become more clear later. 

If you are reading this blog for the first time, the primary purpose of this blog and this post is for a diary of sorts for me to remember some of life's adventures. In this post I hope to pass along my experiences and hopefully some advice to those novice runners considering running a marathon for the first time. Let's first start of with the why I chose to run a marathon. 

Why?

Why would anyone want to run 26.2 miles at one time? For me the notion that I could actually run a marathon started when I had completed the Portland Half- Marathon the previous year. I wrote about that experience here.  I have actually thought about it off and off since the early 2000's in Nashville, TN. Each year the Music City Marathon would run by a call center that I worked at wreaking havoc with our attendance one Saturday each spring. I thought it would be a tremendous accomplishment to push myself to the physical extreme by running a marathon. At that time I weighed around 220 pounds (I'm 6'2) and barely exercised at all. I knew I was no where close to being able to run a marathon at that point. I decided to go to graduate school and get an MBA instead which put me further out of shape. 

Fast forward multiple life changing experiences and you get to the summer of 2013. By this time I had moved from Nashville, TN to Portland, OR. I had lost and kept off 65 pounds over a three year span. I was also about to start training for my first half-marathon. Up until this point I had only run in a handful of 5K races. I had never run more than 6 miles at one time before the half-marathon training. Once I started training I began running 6 miles and more on a regular basis and not having too much difficulty doing it. I knew now was probably my best shot. I was then 39 years old (6 weeks away from being 40 on race day) and my knees where not getting any younger. So, almost a month after completing my first and to date only half-marathon I signed up to run the 2014 Portland Marathon.

The Training

The training plan that I selected came from the same source that I used for the half-marathon. I used a plan from the website Marathon Rookie. I did take some time and researched other plans such as those from Hal Hidgdon and Jeff Galloway which are very popular. I checked out a few books on various topics including stretching and nutrition. I took quite a few notes during the research phase. 

I knew the training wouldn't be easy nor would it be as simple as just running twice the mileage even though that is roughly what occurred or at least what my log showed. By the way keeping a log is a very good piece of advice that I would recommend. I logged each run for date, distance, temperature/weather, shoes, and then misc notes such as how I felt or what I would try differently next time. For the half-marathon I trained for 10 weeks and ran 182 miles. For the marathon I trained for 16 weeks and ran 392 miles. To get a better idea of how the marathon training is more difficult could be illustrated by looking at the long runs. Before starting the marathon training I had only run 13.1 miles or a half marathon one time. During marathon training I would run a half-marathon distance or greater for 6 consecutive weeks (weeks 8 thru 13).

Charlie - I ran into him a couple of times during my training long runs

Despite the mileage the training overall went pretty smooth. Running a half-marathon first was a tremendous advantage in preparing for a full marathon.  This would be a another key piece of advice to share.  It would have been a lot more challenging starting off with a full marathon. I still experimented with different items during training. Most of my experimenting was with diet and hydration strategies for my long runs. I also used energy gels for the first time. I didn't use them once during the half-marathon training which I still hard to believe. They made a big difference for me. I experimented with how often I took them and with water or a sports drink. What worked best was washing them down with Ulitma Replenisher which was the sports drink that the Portland Marathon served on the course in addition to water. It's also a good idea to experiment with the drink served during the race while you train. 

The only real problem I struggled with during training was with my right knee. In only week three of my training I slowed down to get a drink a water at a water fountain in downtown Portland and right before I stopped I experienced a brief sharp pain that lasted for a second or two. I didn't step awkwardly beforehand nor was there any previous symptoms.  I immediately stopped running and then took a minute to  drink some water. It hurt again for a second or two after I started to run again so I slowed down. It then ached for another mile or two before going away completely during the rest of my seven mile run. For the remainder of my training I would experience aching on and off with my right knee. I only experienced the sharp pains a couple more times after the first incident. I started taking ibuprofen and icing regularly. One thing I didn't do was see a doctor. I think I didn't because I was afraid of having to shut things down and wait until next year. This was probably not a good idea. I did some research online and read some blogs. The general consensus was that since the pain wasn't sharp and intense after the initial episode then I should continue running which is what I did. I did cut back on other activities. I immediately stopped riding my bike to work (7 miles round trip daily). I did resume for a little bit once the aching subsided but stopped altogether for the final 6 weeks of training. My advice here would be to have significant injuries checked out even if it means skipping a few days of training. 

Deer that were watching me run on the Springwater Corridor Trail

The only other training activity that I probably would have done differently had to do with the long runs. I normally started my long runs between 5:30 am to 6:30 am on Saturdays in order to beat the heat. I do not run that well in the heat. It helped me get through the training but would catch up with me during the marathon itself as the marathon temps eventually got up to 15 degrees warmer than I was used to running in. If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't have run during the hottest part of the day but I would have spent more time running in temperatures that would be on the high side of what the average high temperatures would be on the marathon day. I think this would have helped tremendously.

Taken during a week day run along the WIllamette River in downtown Portland...a rowing crew and Mt. Hood  are in the background

The Marathon

Now for the big day itself. After years of off and on again anticipation, 4 months and nearly 400 miles of training it was time for the race itself.

I got up at 4:30 am and ate the breakfast that worked best for me which was a bowl of yogurt with granola, a banana, and a 12 oz glass of orange juice. I then put on my running clothes that I had laid out and the night before and listened to a podcast before it was time to take a bus to the start area. We only live a little more than 3 miles from where the marathon started and finished so I took the bus which runs in front of our house downtown. I took the 6:10 am bus and I arrived about 30 minutes prior to the start time. There were actually 4 other runners on the bus with me :-). After I walked about 5 blocks to the start area, I did some light jogging until I found some port a potties with a reasonable line about 10 minutes before the gun went off. 

Pic of me the night before the marathon trying on my race clothes with bib & chip

It was now time to start running. I wasn't nervous or even anxious when the race started. Since I had run the half-marathon at the same place the previous year, I was used to how the event would start. I got out to a good start and was feeling good. I wore my iPhone on my arm and was listening to music. The running app that I use (RunKeeper) was telling me my pace every mile. It was telling me that I was running faster than I normally do to start my long runs but I ignored it. I was excited by the cheering crowd and feeling relaxed that the race had actually started. This would be catch up to me later in the race. 

Heading toward the Starting Line (under the blue banner)

My plan and the advice I was given by an experienced runner was to run the first 2-3 miles slow then build up to your normal pace. I didn't follow this advice too well. I actually did speed up after the first couple miles which probably compounded my eventual problems. I didn't have any issues or problems for the first 11 miles. I was feeling a little warm but not too bad. After the first couple miles the sun had come up. The course is run through downtown Portland so there is hardly any shade. A little past mile 11 Alethea (my wife) and her friend Rachael met me at a pre-arranged spot. They cheered me on and took a quick video and some pictures. I was definitely glad they were there to cheer me on.

Me running in NW Portland between miles 11 & 12. I was definitely glad Alethea and Racheal came out to cheer me on during the race.

Just past the half way point I experienced my first issue. My right knee started to ache pretty bad. I didn't experience the sharp pain that I had experienced when I initially hurt my knee but I experienced a fair amount of aching for the next the several miles. This caused me to slow just a little bit. 

The next issue I encountered was on mile 17. At this point in the race the course goes up a big hill before crossing the St. John's Bridge in north Portland. I was still feeling OK and continued running up the hill. I only made it half way before stopping to walk. Numerous runners around me including several who had passed me long ago were walking. I probably should have walked the entire hill. At the top of the hill I resumed running and ran across the St. John's Bridge while enjoying some of the best scenery of the race. I continued to slowly jog until about mile 20 until I started encountering some real problems. I was out of gas. I wanted to continue running but I couldn't. I texted Alethea to let her know that I wasn't doing too good and not to expect me at the finish line at the time I originally thought I would be there. This caused her to worry but I think it was the right thing to do. At this point I also started to see more and more runners pulled up with cramps. I saw runners stop and lay down. I also saw quite a few getting sick to their stomach. I'm sure this weighed on me mentally. I didn't see this when I had run the half-marathon except for one person getting sick to her stomach about 10 miles are so into the race.

Running across the St. John's Bridge in North Portland ~ 18 miles in

At this point I had a decision to make. There were official marathon vehicles that roam around this point  of the race that shuttle people back to the finish area if they are unable to make it. I saw people get into these vehicles. Even though I was not feeling good and thought that I might pass out there was no way I was getting into one of those vans. I had worked too hard. I then began to jog lightly for a half mile then walk for a half mile at a time. I did hit one stretch by mile 22 that was somewhat downhill. I was able to run for about mile and half. Once this part was over the course started to slightly clime back uphill. I then had to walk some more.  I met up with Alethea again around mile 25. She said I was pale and wasn't looking too good at this point. I kept on walking for another half mile before I got to the final fenced-in area where the finish line was located. At this point I started to run again and crossed the finish running.

A quick pic on the run from the St. John's Bridge looking back toward downtown Portland

I was relieved to finish and still be standing at this point. As soon as I crossed the finish line I received my finisher's medal and my finishers jacket top to keep me warm. I posed for a picture for a photographer and then limped over to the recovery area. I probably felt my absolutely worse in the first 5 minutes after the race. I knew I could be in a little trouble if I didn't concentrate on my recovery. I was feeling a little light headed and looked around for the medical tent. I drank a little chocolate milk before concentrating on water and getting natural unprocessed sugars in me. I began eating several orange slices and bananas while drinking just water. After about 5 minutes I started to feel somewhat human again. Once I felt like I wasn't going to pass out or get sick to my stomach I left the finish area and met up with Alethea. On the way out I saw several fellow runners in the medical tent or laying on the ground not looking too good.

Me with my finisher's medal on the way home after the race. It had been 20 or so minutes since the finish. I'm starting to feel somewhat human again at this point :-)

Thoughts and initial reaction

My initial reaction to how I did was that I was upset. I finished my first marathon in 4 hours and 58 minutes. Based on my pace on my 20 mile run 3 weeks before the marathon I expected to come in at about 4 hours and 15 minutes. The biggest mistake I made was getting caught up in the excitement and running too fast too soon. I somehow forgot that they call it a marathon and not a sprint. The other key factor was the heat. When the race started it was 58 degrees which was 10 degrees warmer than the half-marathon the year before. During the race it was sunny and got up to 75 before I crossed the finish line. The faster than normal pace combined with above average temperature drained me faster than I realized. I did my long runs to avoid the summer heat and it came back to haunt me. The pain issues in my right knee were completely bearable even though they weren't pleasant. I was feeling down and depressed for the first day or so until I got an email with my unofficial results. It turns out that despite the disaster of the last 6 miles where I had to walk/run I still ended up doing better than 39% of the 6,249 runners who participated. I felt like I was in the bottom 2% when I finished.

2014 Portland Marathon Finisher's Medal, Medallion, & Charm

What's next?

Now that it has been a couple weeks and I have time to reflect I'm starting to feel better about what I accomplished. I set a stretch goal that was very challenging and worked hard for four months to accomplish something that 5 years ago would have been nearly impossible. I would probably would have died if I attempted this then. I'm still not happy with my results. It feels as if I were a sports team who worked hard all year only to lose in the championship. I am proud that I did it though. It was definitely a bucket list item that I marked off my list. I read somewhere that fewer than 1% of the population ever completes a marathon. This sounds a little low to me but it does mean that I am in somewhat rare company.

I took the day after the marathon and spoiled myself  with a Reggie Deluxe from Pine State Biscuits

I definitely want to run another marathon. I may change my mind but I'm not sure I'll completely get the bad taste out of my mouth for how I ran the marathon  I will say this though, the best piece of advice I've seen is from Bill Rodgers who won both the New York and Boston marathons multiple times regarding when you should run your next marathon said, "don't run your next marathon until you have forgotten your last". I think I will follow that advice.

Before I conclude this post I would like to say a special thanks to my wife Alethea. She was very supportive throughout the process. She did a great job preparing healthy meals throughout my training. I am especially grateful for the recovery breakfast meals after my long runs! She also had to pick up my slack with operating  the vacation rental we operate as I was generally useless on Saturdays for several hours. Thank you Alethea! A supportive spouse makes a big difference when pursing your goals.





Listed below are some statistics and notes from my first marathon experience:

Marathon Result numbers (unofficial result numbers from the Portland Marathon bib# 836):

Overall I finished 3,952 out of 6,249 participants

I finished 2,210 out of 3,104 men

I finished 362 out of 481 men in my age group of men aged 40-44

My finish time was 4:58:26
Some facts on the marathon participants: 70% of the runners were from out of state, all 50 states were represented along with 29 countries, 56% were women

Other Miscellaneous numbers
I started training on June 16th and completed the marathon on October 5th

During training I ran 392 miles.
The average temperature that I ran in (when the run started) was 59 degrees with 81% humidity 
I spent a total of $375.64 on the Marathon. This included the entrance fee, 2 pair of running shoes, energy gels and some of the chocolate milk I purchased (Alethea started purchasing with our regular groceries after the couple of weeks). 
I attended 13 yoga classes at work which helped tremendously with flexibility. 
I started my training weighing 169.4 pounds. I weighed in usually once a week. I weighed 169.2 pounds at my final weigh in. Yes, I only lost .2 of a pound while running nearly 400 miles over 4 months. 
I only got rained on significantly on two occasions which is remarkable considering I live in the Pacific NW.
I ran indoors only twice. Once right after I hurt my knee in week 4 of training to soften the impact surface to see if that would help. The other time was in September when it was raining heavily outside & I needed to get my run in before work. 

England & Scotland

Unfortunately my pace of updating my blog has slowed to the point where I'm down to updating it once or twice a year.  It's not that I haven't been doing anything. It is just that I don't think what I have been up to warrants a blog post plus by the time I get around to it Alethea has already covered what I would like to write about with another well written blog post. In this post I'll highlight what we did on our recent vacation England & Scotland from my perspective. I know Alethea has already written one blog post on our trip but I have not read it yet. I do not read her posts before writing my own if it is on the same topic. I always find it interesting how we come to different conclusions despite being together on the same trip. Also with this post I'm going to experiment a little bit. I'm going to at least write the post on my iPhone. I'm thinking about for future long term travel only taking my phone with me so this will be a test.

Hadrian's Wall - built in 122 AD to keep the Scottish out & the English in :)

Why the UK?

I'll start off my review with why we chose the UK. The idea presented itself over I believe a year ago when Alethea bid & subsequently won a silent auction bid for the use of a flat in a town called Alnwick, England. The proceeds went to benefit a local theater in Portland. Alnwick is in the north eastern part of Englad about 35 miles from the Scottish border. I'll admit that I wasn't thrilled at first but quickly was intrigued by an opportunity to visit somewhere I haven't been before. I had been to London before but had not been outside the city. When our round the world trip came to an end in Belgium we almost decided to extend the trip into Scotland. When we went on our honeymoon trip we nixed Scotland because of the expense and after having spent spent a month driving around Ireland I was afraid Scotland would be too simiIiar to Ireland which I concluded after this trip that it is not. 

           York Minster in all places- York, England

What we did in the UK

In all I spent 15 days in the UK. We spent a total of 6 nights at the flat in Alwick, England and the rest of our time driving around Scotland. In England we stayed within a day's driving distance of Alnwick. We spent one day walking around Alnwick. We spent another day at Hadrian's Wall & Durham. Another day was spent in York while another day was spent driving to Holy Island and on the coast. In Scotland we spent two nights in Edinburgh, a night in Pitlochry, a night in Inverness, two nights in Portree on the Isle of Skye, two nights in Oban, and one night in Glasgow. Yes, we drove to all these places. We considered taking trains but the UK has one of the most expensive rail networks in the world. Renting a car was far cheapern even with gas in the UK being well over $5 a gallon. 

   

          Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island, England

What I liked about our trip.

I really enjoyed our trip. It was nice to get away from our lives  here in Portland for a little bit plus I always enjoy visiting Europe. There were many things I enjoyed. I like the mixture of countryside and cities. The English & Scottish countryside were prettier than I was expecting. Edinburgh was my favorite city. I liked the Edinburgh Castle, walking The Royale Mile, & visitng a session of the Scottishe Parliment. I also enjoyed the historical sites we included in the trip such as Hadrian's Wall, York Minster, Stirling Castle, the William Wallace Monument, Holy Island, & the Iona Abbey on the isle of Iona. It would be tough to pick any one thing I liked the best. The Isle of Skye & our day trip to Iona would probably be at the top because of their remoteness, natural beauty, & historical sgnificance. 

                            Edinburgh Castle

What I didn't like about the trip

When it comes to the area of what I didn't like there really isn't too much to list. The UK is rather expensive but I knew that going in. I wasn't impressed with Glasgow, Scotland but I was also pretty much expecting that too. Rick Steves tours do not stop there which ought to tell you something. The only stressful parts of the trip were problems with my flights both on the way there and on the way home. I would like my next big trip to include direct flights or just one layover. I don't like running running thru airports which I had to do to catch my Philadelphia to Portland flight on the way back. The preceding  flight was over two hours late leaving London for no apparent reason. 

      The Three Lochs on the Isle of Mull, Scotland

I forgot about one stressful moment after I wrote the paragraph above. While driving back from Scotland to our flat in Alnwick we almost ran our rental car out of gas. It got to the point where the car was no longer calculating how many miles we have. We ended using the car's built in GPS maps to look for the nearest gas station. I bet we had less than a mile or so left in the tank before finally spotting the service station right where the GPS device said it would be. The funny thing is that we decided to buy a beer made by the local brewery at the gas station and I got carded. In the UK you only have to be 18 to buy alcohol. It's the first time in all my travels across Europe that I've ever been carded.

                Somewhere on the Isle of Skye

What's next?

Well I hope you enjoyed my abbreviated recap of our recent trip to  England & Scotland. I really enjoyed unplugging for a bit and the opportunity to mix in some beautiful scenery with some historical sights. I'll include here at the bottom a link to a public Facebook album of some pictures.

  Scottish Highland Cow that I was able to hand feed

Next up for me after our vacation is work and in about a week from the time I'm writing this I'll start training for the Portland Marathon which will be in October. It will be a grueling 16 weeks of training but this is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I haven't decided if I'll write about it as I train or wait until I'm done. We'll see. That's all for now. Hope all is well!

Link to my Facebook highlight album of pics:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152842114068082.1073741834.744178081&type=1&l=fb8d0bb1f0

Running My First Half-Marathon

Running in a long distance race is something I wanted to try for some time. I figured I was not getting any younger so I signed up for the 2013 Portland Half-Marathon. Originally, I was interested in running either the Half or Full Marathon in 2012. I attended a Team in Training event at a local pub (I live in Portland, OR after all) in the spring of 2012. I was motivated by the presentation to run except I was not enthused about having to raise $1,500 in order to get free training and have my entry fee paid. I didn't like the idea of hitting people up for money so I could run in a race. Yes, the money goes to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society which is a reputable organization but something just didn't feel right to me about it. If I didn't reach my fund raising goal then I would be on the hook for the difference. I was also technically unemployed at the time. It had only been a few months since we moved to Portland. The only income I had was working as an extra on the TV show Grimm that is filmed here in Portland. ...Fast forward on to early November of 2012 when I received an email promoting the Portland Marathon. I thought long and hard about signing up for the Full Marathon but considering that the only running event that I had done prior to registering was one 5 K the previous July I eventually decided to go with the Half-Marathon.

Hawthorne Bridge where I started & finished many of my training runs

I will not go blow by blow covering the last year of training but I will go over some of the things that worked well and didn't go well. Hopefully, someone who is thinking about running can learn from my experiences.  I didn't actually train for the whole year but I stayed in shape until the training began in late July. Before training started my normal exercise routine included riding my bike to work 5 days a week (most weeks - 3.5 miles one way), participating in my H.I.I.T. (High Intensity Interval Training) exercise  class at work twice a week, and then running (no longer than 3-4 miles) or lifting weights on alternate days. I was working out usually 6 days a week. When I started training for the Half-Marathon I actually worked out fewer days per week since I ran just 4 days a week. It was nice building in the rest days. I plan on incorporating more rest days as part of my exercise plan post half-marathon.

This little fella snuck up on me one morning while I was stretching after a run.

Before I get into my list of what went well what didn't including some observations about the race I'll start off with some numbers being the analytical nerd I can be at times.

Half-Marathon by the numbers (I kept a log  of my training and expenses which I recommend):

• I started training on 7/29 with the race day being on 10/6.
• In 10 weeks of training I ran 182 miles.
• The average temperature when I ran was 60 degrees. I usually started at 6:30 am. 
• The hottest temperature I ran in was 78 degrees on August 17th. I ran at 2 pm in the afternoon on a Saturday. Alethea and I were out late the night before :-).
• The coldest temperature I ran in was 47 degrees on 9/19 and on 10/6 the day of the event.
• I participated in 9 Yoga classes at work spread throughout the training which really helped.

• Only ran indoors twice on a treadmill due to weather (8/29 and 9/30). I did get rained on during runs but on these two days it was pouring or lightening during the time I could run so I ran indoors at the on site company gym.

• Total amount of money spent was $315.47. This included entry fee, shoes, socks, hydration belt, Muscle Milk, Ultima Replenisher, and a reflective running vest. 

• Results: I finished in 2:06:34. I placed 617 out of 2,406 Half Marathon participants. I was 317 out of 734 men who entered. In my age group of 35-39 males I was 63 out of 113. My pace was 9:40 per mile. There were also 6,947 Full Marathon participants running at the same time.

Next I will list out what worked and what didn't work. I'll focus more on the training here. I'll highlight the actual race later on.

What worked?

• Hydration Belt. This thing worked very well during long runs. I only wore it on runs that were going to be more than a hour in duration.

• Sticking to a training schedule. I did a lot of research before starting my training. Alethea checked out some library books and I made notes from multiple sources before started. I ended up going with a running plan from Marathon Rookie (www.marathonrookie.com). Only time I deviated from the schedule was when I ran a 5 K a couple weeks in to my training on a Sunday following a long run day. I then took off two days in a row instead of one. I still ended up running the amount of miles I was scheduled to run for that week. 

• Experimentation. Once I started training I experimented quite often with little things like diet, clothes, shoes, iPhone Apps, music, stretches, etc. I would try slightly different things as I went along because one key thing I read over and over was the statement nothing new on race day!

• Nothing new on race day. I adhered to this principle and I know that it helped. I almost switched running apps the day of the race because Run Keeper didn't have a way to set it to run a half marathon but the Nike app did. I didn't want a technical malfunction so I stuck with the Run Keeper app. The app turned out to be off by over a half mile. I had read they were usually off by a percent or two. It said I was done 8 tenths of a mile before the race was over.

• Long runs. Yeah, I know this is part of the training program but these are what I enjoyed the most. I think it was probably because these were not on work days. On most long runs I had routes to myself and could just relax, listen to music or a podcast, and just run. I even decided to skip going to watch my alma mater (Tennessee) play Oregon in football on 9/14 because I wanted to get in my 12 mile long run versus altering my schedule to watch Tennessee get whipped while spending a few hundred dollars for the privilege of doing so.

• Alternating between running shoes. When I bought my running shoes at Fit Right NW the salesperson mention doing this. I thought it was a gimmick to sell more shoes but it actually worked and helped me break in a new pair while using shoes I was already used to.

What didn't work?

• Having a significant bike wreck  four weeks before I started training. I had a nasty spill on 7/3 while riding my bike on the way to purchase new running shoes of all things. I hit some unused rail tracks at the wrong angle in NW Portland and ended up on the pavement. I developed a nasty bruise on my hip and rear end. I was still in pain on 7/29 when I started training. I even occasionally felt the bruise in my rear on some of my long runs toward the end of my training.

• Nipple Chaffing. I experienced nipple chaffing for the first time. I purchased some Body Glide  and began to use it. It definitely worked. 

• Underestimated how long it would take me to complete the half-marathon when I signed up. During registration I put down it would take 3 hours to complete the run. I therefor was put in the slowest corral for runners. Only the walkers were behind me. I pretty much passed runners who planned to run at a slower pace for most of the first 10 miles. I had no idea when I registered what I would run. Once I started doing long runs I realized I was doing much better than I had anticipated. Keep in mind I am a complete novice. I also didn't learn until after it was too late that I could have adjusted my corral assignment until August 1st. In the future I plan on being more realistic with my times now that I have a baseline.

• Weather. The weather cooperated a great deal and I think I picked a good time of year to train and run. However, I got rained on at least 4 times when the hourly forecast said 0% chance of rain. Only twice did I absolutely get soaked. My iPhone was drenched on one of those runs but it didn't damage it. I  wore my water proof arm band on long runs from that point on. 

• Giving blood 5 weeks into training. I donated blood at work on an off day for training and ended up passing out. I later learned during a biometric screening at work that since my pulse was so low (it was 53 when measured….60 is actually considered low) this makes me more likely to have issues.

• Violating the nothing new on race day principle by trying to run much faster during the final mile of the race. I'll go into details later for this one.

The Half-Marathon

All in all race day went remarkably well. It was actually somewhat anti-climatic. Physically, I felt fine. My training had me reducing mileage starting two weeks out from race day. The last week of training had me going on short 3 mile runs, a  2 mile walk, and some extra rest days leading up to the race. On the morning of the event I got up at 4:30 am  and ate a bowl of yogurt and granola along with two 8 oz servings of Muscle Milk. I had plenty of time for this to settle on my stomach before leaving at 6 am. Alethea drove me down to the base of the Hawthorne Bridge on the east side. I climbed up the stairs and then jogged a little over half a mile to the corral area. I spent several minutes performing the normal stretches that I do and even did some extra jogging. I walked over to my corral area for slow runners :-). I then proceeded to take off my hooded sweatshirt and place it in the clothing check bag and dropped it off in the UPS delivery van for my area. I then got in line for the porta potties. The line was actually quite long. I waited 10 minutes in line. I then discovered a coffee shop within our corral area that was open so I went inside to stay warm since it was another 10 minutes before the scheduled start. It was surprisingly cool. I probably should have worn my thin liner gloves but decided not too.

Looking toward the East Side of the Willamette River about 45 minutes before the race - Can you spot Mt. Hood?

Now for the race itself. A couple minutes before the 7 am start time we all sang the national anthem which was pretty neat. This new tradition started within the last couple years when the scheduled singer didn't  show. The announcer got on the microphone and had the crowd sing it instead. After the national anthem the corrals started to release. I was back in corral F. It took a little over 17 minutes to actually start the race from the time the first corral started. It was very crowded. There were 9,000 combined Full and; Half-Marathon participants.  Once I got up to the start line which wasn't exactly marked as well as I thought I hit start on my iPhone Run Keeper app and started to run. Oddly enough a lot of people were walking at the start. I don't think they knew they had passed the start line for a couple blocks at least. After that it was just running.

The starting line for both the Full and Half-Marathon is under the blue banner

Now that the running actually started I just relaxed and ran. It was so noisy at first with all the cheering, bands, and other groups I actually couldn't hear my music or the pace I was running from my phone. The first funny thing I saw was that people were lined up to use the porta potties only a mile into the race. I guess they weren't able to go before due to the long lines. I shouldn't be too critical of the people using the porta potties. One minor mistake I made was hydrating a little too much. I stopped to get water at the first two aid stations even though they were before I would normally drink during my long runs. This eventually caught up with me. Between miles  8 and 9 I actually had to pee which never happened during my training runs. I stopped and very quickly visited a porta potty that didn't have a line. Many of the porta potties had lines throughout the race.

Now that I was properly relieved it was nothing but more running to the finish line. I did see or experiencing a few interesting things before the end of the race. I was running behind a woman around mile 9 who pulled over to the side and started throwing up. A little bit after that I came across a bunch of people dressed up as pirates singing pirate songs. I even got a high five from one of the pirates. One other amusing thing I saw was that at one of the aid stations the volunteers had sticks with Vaseline on them. You are supposed to scoop some of the Vaseline off and rub it on you were you might be chaffing. A woman right in front of me scooped up some Vaseline and proceeded to lick it off her finger before quickly realizing it wasn't an energy gel as she probably thought it was. The guy running next to her started laughing and made fun of her for learning a lesson of not trying something new during race day!

The only thing bad thing that happened was started on mile 12.  I had the bright idea of trying to run as fast I could until I finished. I was feeling great and figured since I had only 1.11 miles to go after several weeks of training why not leave anything in the tank? Within a few hundred meters I was already feeling a little out of gas so I backed off a little bit but not too much. I ended up crossing the finish line with no issues. Unfortunately, starting the next day my quads became really tight despite all the stretching I did after the race and throughout the remainder of the day. This is what I get for doing something new on race day. I didn't experience any injuries including tightness in my quads during my training. I didn't even get so much as a blister.

The last half mile of the race involved a few twists and turns to the finish line and the next thing you know I had completed the race. I was so relieved and excited. Immediately, within a few steps after crossing the finish line the volunteers put a space blanket around me and put my finishers medal around my neck and pointed me over to the recovery area. I had done it! I then proceeded to start my recovery with some chocolate milk,  Ultima Replenisher,  bananas, and oranges in addition to some stretching. They even had some Reece's Cups as snacks too! I only ate one :-). I picked up my finishers t-shirt and met Alethea outside of the secured area at the reunion spot.

Me after completing my 1st Half-Marathon

After thinking about this for over a year, working out regularly throughout the winter and spring, and 10 weeks of formal training I was done! I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I thoroughly enjoyed the process. It was a lot of hard work but worth it. The next morning after it was over I felt like I did when I finished graduate school. I  now had a bunch of time on my hand but no definite firm goal to pursue.

What I learned

I can say what I learned was really something I knew all along. I reinforced the notion that if you set a specific goal, make a plan, jump in and start doing something while learning along the way then you can accomplish just about anything. I plan to build off this and use this to achieve goals in other areas of my life. 

My finisher medal for the Half-Marathon

What's next or will I run a full marathon?

What's next for me is some rest and recovery. I've spent the week after the half-marathon sleeping in and taking it easy. I rode the bus to work the first day back to work after the half-marathon due to how tight my quads were. I am back on my bike now which I think has helped. I'm already researching Full-Marathons to run in. I definitely think I can do it although I know it will not be easy. I am researching ones in scenic places like Hawaii, New Zealand, and Europe. I'm also looking at the Rock 'n' Roll in Nashville. More than likely I'll probably go with the Portland Full-Marathon. Portland is my home turf plus it helps that I am familiar with at least half of the course :-). 

Alethea's reward to me for finishing the Half-Marathon

Before I conclude I would like to say a special thanks to my wife Alethea for being there during my training. I am grateful for her support and understanding especially since we moved half way through my training. Alethea writes about her new job and our new housing situation in this blog post which can be found here. I am also so glad she let me use one of her massage gift certificates the day after the race. I went to the North Portland Wellness Center for a 60 minute Swedish Deep Tissue Massage that felt great.

That's all for now. Hope everyone is doing well. Let me know if you have any questions or comments related to this post about my first half-marathon.

Two Weeks in Alaska, Just What The Doctor Ordered

Updated this post to clean up some formatting issues and I included links to pictures & videos. The links are located at the bottom. I meant to just update the post but when experimenting with editing pictures from my iPhone it reverted it back to a Draft, so I apologize if you get this twice :-).


Now that we have been back from vacation for just over a month I figured it was about time to write a post about our trip to Alaska. This post will be a little different in that I will be writing it on my iPad & iPhone. I've wanted to write a post on these devices to see if it was something I could do without the aide of a keyboard. The next time we travel for an extended period time I would like to go as light as possible. I only took my iPad & iPhone on our trip. I could easily made it with just my iPhone. All the pics & videos I took we're with my iPhone 4s. Maybe typing on an iPad screen will improve my spelling & grammar....nah :)

Before I go any further I want to say a big thank you to my wife Alethea.. She did an outstanding job in planning our trip to Alaska. She essentially planned all the details from transportation to accommodations to all the miscellaneous activities. Everything went very smoothly. For this trip I really didn't do much other than give feedback and help make decisions which is easy compared to doing all the grunt work. Thank you very much Alethea!

Alaska is a place I've wanted to go to for quit some time. I enjoy the outdoors & nature related trips as much as anything else. From what I recall I came home from work not too long after Alethea had hip surgery back in January & stated that I wanted to go on vacation. Not a 4 day mini-vacation but an actual trip somewhere. The places I wanted to go were either Alaska or to Europe. My Europe destinations were Munich, Vienna, & anything exciting in between. I think I was at least thinking about Hawaii too because I was riding my bike to work when it was 20 something degrees at 5 am in the morning & thinking anywhere sunny & tropical would be nice. In the end Alaska won out primarily because it is relatively close to us in Portland & Europe is still expensive despite their financial difficulties. 

Our trip to Alaska can be broken to two parts. The first would be the cruise we took to get there and then the second part would be post cruise activities. I'll first write about the cruise portion of our trip.

As I mentioned we essentially took a cruise to get to Alaska. I say essentially because we did take a short slightly over a hour long flight from Portland to Vancouver, Canada where we started the cruise portion of our trip. Originally, I wanted to take the Amtrak train to Vancouver but it was going to take I believe 9 hours and be pretty pricey. We've taken the train ride in segments from Portland to Seattle and then from Seattle to Vancouver in the past. We decided to go up to Vancouver a full day before our cruise left. We wanted to spend a day sightseeing before the cruise. We had both been there in 2010 & really enjoyed it. This time around it wasn't quit as nice as I remembered it. We encountered a lot more homeless people that appeared to be strung out on drugs of some sort.. We didn't have any issues with them but at the same time I felt a little uncomfortable which was disappointing. Vancouver has plenty of nice places but looking back I would have skipped this part of the trip if I would have known it would be this bad. 

Luckily for us Vancouver was about the only disappointment with our trip. From Vancouver we took a 7 night cruise to Seward, Alaska on the Holland America ship the Ms Zaandam. Our ship wasn't a massive 3,000 person ship. It held about 1,400 passengers. We had sailed with Holland America in the past. We find that they are a good value and fit for the way we like to travel. I used to be somewhat apprehensive when it came to the idea of cruising but now I like being pampered for a week. It's nice to have someone else do the cooking & cleaning for a little bit. I do like Holland America for its relaxed policy for bringing alcohol on board and for having self service laundry machines. These thing may sound trivial but they make a difference. 

The cruise itself was very enjoyable. As soon as we checked in I felt at ease especially since the night before we stayed at a very basic hostel above a pub in downtown Vancouver. Soon as we checked in we ate lunch in the dinning room and basically pigged out for the rest of the trip. I much prefer the dinning room versus buffet dining. I like to take my time and enjoy the meal versus fighting the crowds. 

I will not do a complete blow by blow of our cruise stops but will highlight what I enjoyed. Our cruise stops in order were Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, & Glacier Bay National Park (technically not a stop). We did have two sea days thrown into the mix too. In Ketchikan & Skagway we pretty much did our own thing & walked around town checking things out & seeing what we wanted to see. 

Juneau was probably my favorite part of the cruise. In Juneau we arranged on our own a whale watching trip. The whale watching company picked us up right from our ship and we went out on a 3 hour tour of Auk Bay. We saw sea lions & more importantly hump back whales. Seeing these massive animals up close is impressive. The closest we saw one was from about a 100 feet away. The scenery of the surrounding bay was also spectacular. After our whale watch trip we went back to the cruise ship and packed ourselves a lunch before taking the public bus out to Mendenhall Glacier which is a few miles outside of Juneau. The glacier is massive. Once we were done with the glacier we hopped back on the public bus and eventually made back into town. In town we did a self walking tour that included the state capital where Sarah Palin once worked. We finished the evening off with a sampler of local Alaskan beers before walking back to the ship.

My second favorite part of the cruise trip was visiting Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. We essentially spent a full down cruising through Glacier Bay National Park on our way to Margerie Glacier. It was cold & wet but it provided terrific views of the massive glacier. It was the only time on our trip to Alaska that I had all of my warm weather gear on which included my gloves & rain proof pants. 

After Glacier Bay we came to the end of our cruise unfortunately. We disembarked in Seward, Alaska. We had planned to go on a glacier hike outside of Seward but our operator cancelled the hike because there was too much snow! Many parts of Alaska experienced more snow than usual this last past winter. The tour company was just opening up for the summer and had not taken anyone out yet. I was disappointed because it would be the only opportunity I would have to hike on a glacier. Instead we decided to take an earlier bus up to Anchorage.

We spent two nights in Anchorage. We spent quite a bit of time visiting local breweries or places that sold local Alaskan beer. We did visit the Anchorage Museum which was better than I expected. The highlight for me was when we rented bikes & rode the Tony Knowles bike trail. The trail starts downtown & winds its way along the coast and airport before going up a pretty decent hill. I believe it was 11 miles one way. On the way back we even saw a bull moose from a distance. He was eating and didn't pay us any attention. 

Next up after Anchorage was the final destination of our Alaska trip and that was Denali National Park. To begin this part of the adventure we got up at 5 am and drove 2 hours north to Talkeetna. In Talkeetna we had planned on taking a prop plane up to Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. The weather did not cooperate with us for a while. Our 9 am flight wasn't going out due to weather. We were postponed to two other flights throughout the morning that ended up being cancelled as well. We ended up walking around town. We visited a museum, a local brewery, & grabbed a bite to eat. We were then going to get a refund for our flight when the weather cleared and we were able to go on the first afternoon flight that made it to Denali. Our flight was a hour long and included some amazing scenery. We flew over the largest glaciers that I have ever seen and even caught a brief pic of the summit of Denali. It was definitely worth the all day wait. 

Once our amazing flight experience was over we drove another 2 hours north to Denali National Park. We stayed in a cute little hostel a few miles from the park entrance called the Denali Mountain Morning Hostel. We spent two full days touring the park. We decided to book the 8 hour shuttle buses on consecutive days mainly in case the weather was bad. The first day when departed at 7:30 am while the next day we left at noon. I am glad we did both days because we saw the park in different ways each day. We saw plenty of wild life including elk, moose, grizzly bears, foxes, & Dall sheep. In addition to the shuttle bus tour we even got to see some Alaskan Sled Dogs at a kennel near the park entrance. I would say out of the whole trip the thing I enjoyed most was the time spent in Denali. The wildlife viewing was great and so was the beautiful mountain scenery. 

Unfortunately, after Denali we had to start our trek back to Portland. We did have a nice trip back to Anchorage. We took our time driving down from Denali. We even got to see Denali from the ground for the first time. We never saw the summit while in the park. On the way back to Anchorage we stopped in Wasilla at a local pub restaurant. We also stopped at the Iditarod race headquarters where we got pick up a 19 year old Alaskan Sled Dog puppy whose mother actually raced in this winter's race while pregnant with the pup! We eventually made it back to Anchorage, turned in our rental car, and took the public bus to the airport where we took an overnight flight to Seattle and eventually Portland.

All in all it was a great trip. It was nice to have a two week break from work. I enjoyed being spoiled on the cruise on the front half of our trip and thoroughly enjoyed our flight up to Denali and the two full days in the park. Alaska is a neat place that is definitely different than the lower 48 states. 

Hope you enjoyed my post about our trip to Alaska. It felt a little weird pecking away on a iPad but I think it went pretty smooth. We'll see how it looks once I hit the publish button. I composed the entire post on my iPad & added the photos from my iPhone. No laptop or Microsoft product was used in the production of this post :)

What's next for us? Well since we've been back we have been on the go. I even went on a 28 mile bike ride the day I got back! Alethea's family visited us for a week a couple weeks after we got back. I've been busy with work for the most part. We should keep pretty busy the rest of the summer now that we're in the dry season. I really enjoy the summer months here in Northwest. Anyway, enough rambling for now. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Link to high light album of Alaska trip - Alaska Highlight Album
Link to every pic I took in Alaska on my Shutterfly Alaska Trip share site. 
Link to all my videos including the ones I took in Alaska. They are sorted by date so the Alaska ones will show up here. Click here for my YouTube channel - Greg's YouTube Channel