ENOUGH!!!

Since UBC, I have been eating furiously. And it's completely lame. Something about a nice, good-looking guy taking a pic of you in a sport-bra is real motivation to be good. Well, I don't have that anymore...some how I have to hold myself accountable. I don't even want to step on the stupid scale, since it won't lie.

So last night, after my 3rd deep fried mozzarella thing, and after today's 1/2 pound gourmet lunch burger (with extra helpings of chips and bacon, and a strange look from my co-worker), I am sticking a fork in this eating fiasco.

I'm done...I hate how it makes me feel, and I hate thinking about what it's doing to the belly I've spent 10 weeks to whittle down.

Training for the marathon, doing extra workouts is no excuse for this eating tirade...I'm disgusted....and it ends NOW!

God help me.

UBC Results!!!

Last Saturday, we had our final UBC evaluation, and I promised that I would post my before and after pics.

I am very happy with the results.

In total, I lost 7 lbs (down to 127 now), lost 4% body fat (to 21%), 5 and 1/2 freaking inches from from my waist! One inch from my leg and and 3/4" inch from my arm.

My fitness levels improved too...I'm up to girlie 45 push ups in one minute (from 21), 47 situps (from 31), and improved my 1 mile run from 10:24 down to 9:30.

So... Here are my before and after pics side by side. I'm sorry for the poor quality, they didn't have a digital camera, so I had to take pics of the pics.

NOTE: Blogger is acting funning...so I'm ending here. I'll post a couple of pics of our graduation night and tell you about my training in my next post.

Something Crazy!

Before I could think better of it or talk myself out of it. I signed up for another Marathon!

On March 29th, 2009, I'll be running the ING Georgia Marathon in Atlanta!

My best friend from high school just moved out there so it's a good excuse for a trip and a marathon.

To further nail down my commitment, I already bought my plane ticket. I found a flight rountrip from Oakland to ATL for $258; which, I think, it pretty unheard of! I think the stars are aligning on this one. I'm already envisioning a 5:00 marathon!

Anyone want to come and join me?

Volleyball!

Super fun, but we got killed! It's not necessarily a bad thing because the winners have to move up to A league and those guys are good! And we prefer to drink while we play!


My friend and co-worker video taped our slaughter and put the "highlights" to music. I'm the only girl player in the video and in the team pics (in case you are wondering). The video is probably boring if you don't know the players, etc...but I'll put it up here for posterity sake:

Exhausted!

I'm so tired!

I haven't had a rest since the SF Marathon on Sunday (unless you count Sunday afternoon). Monday I went back to doing daily kick boxing since this is week 9 of the program. Monday, I felt a little sore, but it wasn't too bad. I just didn't have any energy. To make matters worse, I decided to work on Monday (I was scheduled to take a vacation day) because I had a very nasty customer escalation that I didn't want to burden (ahem.....Jenn) anyone with, so I decided to postpone it. Good thing too, I've been working 11+ hour days all week; and it's now finally calming down.

I haven't even mentioned that we've been doing extra volleyball practices this week, in preparation for our business park's volleyball league finals today. Finally after 8 seasons of playing our team has finally made it to the finals. We play at 3:00pm today, and I'm trying not to let on to the team how tired I really am (especially since I'm team captain). It should be loads of fun though, and I'm looking forward to it. The tourney is coupled with a party complete with a couple kegs of Lagunitas beer (which is just around the corner). Beer is not on the UBC diet, but I might have to make an exception, especially if we win!

I'll post results and hopefully photos (if someone remembered their camera) this weekend.

WOO! Race Report!

First off, I got very little sleep last night...Maybe at best 3.5 hours. I just wasn't sleepy and had a hard time falling asleep. Then, of course, I woke up at 3:00AM, 1/2 hour before my alarm.

The drive to SF was nice. I had some time to drink some coffee, water, and eat a few grapes. When I arrived downtown, the parking garages that were listed as opening at 4:30AM, were still dark. Luckily there were quite a few parking spaces on the street, and even better the meters aren't enforced on Sunday. I noted the street where I parked, and headed to the Ferry Building (this was about 5:25). My wave didn't actually leave until 6:25 so I had plenty of time to use the potty, stretch and find my place.

I found the 5:00 Marathon pacer easily. Her name is Marie, and ran the 135! mile Badwater Ultramarathon) just 2 weeks ago. Talk about amazing! She told us that we'd be running 7/ones (run 7 minutes, walk a minute) and we'll be walking through the water stations. She'd also said she would talk her head off the whole race, but also offer advice on nutrition, fitness, etc. Sadly I didn't hear much of this.

We set off at about 6:26 AM. Our wave was the last one and seemed a bit crowded, but it kept the pace up.

Mile 1: 11:26
The first mile on a race is always easy for me. It's the adrenaline. My Garmin beeped 1 mile about .10 before the marker. I thought it was a glitch. So far so good. I stayed pace with Marie, although I wasn't close enough to hear much of what she said.

Mile 2: 10:47
Super fast (for me). Still felt okay with the pace. I assumed Marie was banking a bit of time for the rest stop coming at mile 3. Our walk periods were only what seemed to be a few seconds. We chugged on. I think we hit Fisherman's wharf and pier 39. So far it was really quiet. Really no spectators--one of the drawbacks of such an early start. Mile 2 was hard for me, the excitement of the start gone, faced with the thought of the miles ahead of me, and starting to think I was a bit crazy to even consider this pace.

Mile 3: 12:31
At the rest stop Marie instructed us to drink up not only the water but also the sports drink (very important she said). I waited for my drink to be poured, drank down both drinks and headed off. I looked for Marie's sign, but couldn't see her....then I found her...about 50 yards ahead of me. Arrg...time to kick it up. Feeling better about running.

Mile 4: 11:00
Caught up with Marie's group, or within 10 yards from her. All is good, running along the water towards the bridge. Started to pace myself, doing my own walk breaks and running faster to catch up with Marie, foolish or not, it's what I felt like doing. Talked a bit with a barefoot runner...nice guy...and even though I really can't stand shoes, I wouldn't even think of running a full marathon without shoes.

Mile 5: 11:40
Another rest stop (I think), more catching up with Marie, and seeing the hill up ahead that will take us up to the GG Bridge. Eek! Doing a little more walking now, even though I feel like I should bank a little time for the hill. Picked out a bag of sports beans from my pack and tried to gobble them down, even though I didn't feel like it. What I really feeling like doing is hitting the porto-potties, but the lines are just too long to justify it, so I just continued on.

Mile 6: 13:59
See the bridge..see people running on the bridge...and there's no fog! Sweet! What is not sweet is this dang hill I have to "run"....decide to use my banked minutes and power walk it instead....many others around me are doing the same...There's got to be a downhill at some point, right?

Mile 7: 11:31
Lost Marie on the hill and I'm on my own. Still see the barefoot runner, so that was a comforting sight. It's really different running without either a ipod (the literature said "please, no ipods", but most people still had them), or my sis. I was left alone with my thoughts. The official photographers were on the bridge in what seemed to be like every quarter mile. I tried to smile for the cameras and to make sure I was running. My shoulder and knee started to twinge a bit, so I pulled over and smothered them with some BioFreeze (LOVE that stuff).

On the bridge, they closed down 3 lanes, one for each way and one as a buffer between us and the cars. We had a lot of honks and hollering..which helped push us along. I don't really remember even looking out at the water or anything.

Mile 8: 11:56
Still doing okay, off the bridge on the Marin side, around the parking lot (there were real bathrooms, and real long lines), and another aid station to load up on water and drink, then it's back on the bridge.

Mile 9: 11:53
WTF? the 5:15 pacer just passed me! How can that be? According to my watch I'm still doing 12 minute mile averages and on pace to do a 2:30 1/2....I heard the pacer saying something about being a bit ahead of schedule so I calmed down.

Mile 10: 12:35
This mile sucked! The lane was so narrow and there were so many people walking (some side by side) that I had to run/slow/walk/dodge almost the entire time. Walking always feels better and it's hard to get running again after an abrupt stop...then the roadblock happens again. I'm starting to doubt my calculation.....on whether 12 minute miles for 13 miles equals a 2:30 1/2. Running is not the time to do math....

Mile 11: 10:51
What? I can't believe a dumb calculation error. 12 minute miles would bring me in at 2:36, not 2:30; Marie wasn't banking time, that really was the pace for the 2:30 half. I felt like an idiot. There's no way I'll be able to make it up at this point. But we're off the bridge and it's all down hill. Let's see what I can do!

This is the wonderful part in a race, where you know you're gonna finish and get a medal, even if you walk (or crawl) the rest of the thing...It's a great feeling, but not a good motivator.

My right calf is starting to do a funny thing down this hill, it's like for an instant, the entire calf muscle feels like it's compressing to the size of a golf ball, and right before it threatens to hurt, it relaxes. These "contractions" went on for a good part of this mile and I'm praying they don't turn into a charlie horse.

Mile 12: 14:00
More hills, all up...more hillier than I expected. My ITB (which hasn't plagued me since Nike Women's), in my left leg is starting to twinge. More BioFreeze.

A few more spectators, but then it is after 8:00AM now and people are starting to wake up. There was a cute little boy (about 5 years old), on the sidewalk with a little table and a Big bowl of Pretzels...A handful of pretzels never looked so good!

My body starts telling my brain that finishing at 2:40 would be perfect, and that I should take the rest easy. My Brain listens, and I just go along for the ride. I do have volleyball tournament finals on Friday, and it would not be good if I'm too injured to play (not likely at all, even if I pushed a bit, but I was weak minded at that point). I remember my blog post stating I'd be very happy with a 1/2 marathon time under 2:45. Seriously, I have done only 3 runs over 4 miles to prepare for this race, what the hell was I expecting?

Mile 13--13:33
More hills, approaching GG Park, try to crank up this last mile, but it's hard...I know I'm going to hit the goal doing this walk, walk, jog thing, and there's no one to tell me otherwise and I really don't want to be sore tomorrow. I know the end is just around the corner.

Mile 14 -- 11:06 (pace)
Kick it up a bit for the last 10th of a mile. Maybe I can do it under 2:40, but no...my body tells me, 2:40 is just fine...thank you very much:

Official finish time: 2:40:10, pace 12:13.

Grabbed my medal, mylar blanket, water, and took the shuttle back to the start. The overcast day that we LOVED during the run, was giving me shivers now and all I wanted to do was to get to my car, turn up the heat, and find a Starbucks. Took me wandering around for a 1/2 hour to find my car (must take better notes next time...post race Alzheimers really kills car-finding abilities).

I was able to get warmed up, get some coffee, drive to make it home by 12:00 in time for nice long shower and lunch. Turns out I LOVED the early start after all!

Hours later, I feel great! I might be a little sore tomorrow, but won't have the marathon hobble. My energy is just zapped, but I'll chalk that up to the lack of sleep more than anything else.

Well...I got 10 weeks until Nike's Womens...Plenty of time to get those needed long runs in.

I'm thinking a 5:30 marathon might be in my future!

EEK!

In 12 hours I'll be standing in line waiting to start the race and I am excited!

I took the ferry to SF this morning and picked up race packet, bib, and this cool disposal timing chip; which isn't really much different than a piece of glossy paper with adhesive. (sorry about the bad photo quality):


I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to carbo load for Dinner tonight. I'm almost too excited to eat!

This marathon is going to be vastly different for me since my only other marathon was the Women's Nike Marathon, so 95% of the participants were...well you know..So I'm really looking forward to my first serious co-ed race.

My real goal is to just finish before the course ends (3 hours). This would be 8 minutes faster than Nike, but then Sis probably took 20 minutes in the potties alone on that first half. I would be happy if I could do it in under 2:45, and completely over the moon if I did it in 2:30. I'm going to find the 2:30 pace group and and see if can I hang with them.

I've been thinking a lot about my first marathon and how much excitement, adrenaline, and my almost OCD nature of always having to be on time really helped pushed me along (pulling my sis with me). I really wonder how much it's going to help tomorrow.

I'll know soon enough!

P.S. Here's a link where you'll be able to see my results in real time. This might help push me along a bit too knowing that you all might be "watching". My bib # is 15329!