Marathon No. 2 - Fail!

Not too far from reality

So it is no secret to anyone now that when Texas has some sort of winter weather it tends to really mess things up. We saw it a couple of years ago during the Super Bowl XLV when the Dallas/Ft Worth area got hit with an ice storm that pretty much shut everything down. Now, fast forward 2 years and we encountered a similar situation. I think Mother Nature must be mad at sport events in the Metroplex. Through out the week leading to the Marathon we had great temperatures, who would've believe it was even December. On Wednesday we had almost 80-deg weather, we knew it was going to go down significantly, but I don't think anyone could have guessed the magnitude of this one.

We were glued to the TV... it looked like a chilly run

On Thursday temperatures really went down, stayed in the 30's most of the day and there was rain and sleet on the forecast. 4 pm rolled in and it was all starting to go down, and going down quick. It rained/sleeted all night until almost noon on Friday. Friday rolled in and the temperatures didn't even go above freezing. By 10 am, marathon organizers had already pushed opening the Expo to 2 pm and they kept everyone on the edge as the future of the marathon was uncertain. By around 1 pm, the announcement came out, the Dallas Marathon has been CANCELLED.

That was today Sat. 12/7 at noon

it was official

We kept chatting with the girls from the team and some other people that we knew were doing it and it was more uncertainty. We were trying to figure out logistics of packet pickup. Roads were iced up, news were reporting accidents all over the place, trains were not working 100% and DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) was shut down too. Getting there by train which was an option at one point was becoming less attractive. We were just going to wait until Saturday to see what the the weather forecast called for, but it wasn't looking too good either. It was adding a lot of stress, not only getting to pick up bibs and the t-shirt but also the logistics of getting there on race day. We were saying that we could run in the cold, we had done plenty of runs in the cold and were actually ok with them, but going across the bridges on the route while frozen would've turned simply dangerous. We would've been forced to potentially walk through aid stations as water/gatorade mix would've become black ice and then you had hundreds of volunteers, friends, families and fans cheering runners out there exposed to the elements. Getting them to and from the race site was not an easy task and we are thankful the marathon organization considered not only the runners' safety but also everyone involved with it. We even knew of people that were flying in from out of state on Friday that couldn't get in because the Dallas area airports were shutdown and thousands of flights were cancelled.

couldn't say it any better

Even though we were disappointed that we had put a few months of training plus $100 registration fee, we were actually happy that it was cancelled. Training can always be done, $100 registration fees were donated to a good cause after all, but being safe and having the thousands of people involved with the marathon safe is something that you can't quantify or put a price tag on. We got an email today from the organization saying that they mail us our t-shirts and bibs and will do something special for 2013 runners when they open 2014 registration. Also if you run on 2014 you would get your 2013 medal too. We have to think that through very well, our 2014 year is taking shape and fitting a full marathon at the end will be hard and probably painful, so we are going to call it probably in about 7-8 months, so stay tuned for that.

For now, all I can say is that I'm happy I don't have to get up at 5 am to get ready to run in subfreezing temperatures. :). This marks the end of our 2013 official season, we are still going to run the 5k on New Year's Eve day or New Year's day but it will be for fun and to do something with my parents and sister.

Until then, hope you are a lot warmer than we are in Fort Worth and if you are in Fort Worth, hope you and your peeps are safe at home. :).

What really matters!!!! all we were missing was Res

All I can say is: "We will do the Dallas Marathon one day"... going on year 2, same as Res, it's starting to look like an Elusive Marathon

Marathon No. 2 - Ready - Set.... Let's finish it

Still proud of finishing

A few months ago, around late June (or before the prices went up) we decided to sign up for what would become our Marathon No. 2. They say you can claim your IM Marathon as your Marathon, however our IM Marathons were not that pretty, Res had a 6:00 marathon and Puli had a whooping 7:00 hour marathon, or walk-a-thon, We'll let you call it whatever you want. It didn't change the fact that we was still an IronCouple but heck... 7:00 hours walking was way too long.

So our IM recovery came and went and some girls from the team registered for the Dallas Marathon. We had tried to do it last year but having signed up for IM Texas and upon our return from 70.3 Austin we didn't really feel it was needed. This year was a bit different, for us it was a way not to sign up for anymore races, but yet doing something instead of just the bare minimum. Marathon training with the endurance that we had acquired through the year seemed appropriate for the occasion and to close the year with a good one close to home.

We embarked on the so called marathon training, it didn't really feel like marathon training, we had a few weeks of all 3 on our schedules and the mileage wasn't too high, we had Trifecta Oly in the middle, the Bourbon Chase and the No Limits Half as training runs leading to it, the max mileage we hit was maybe 50 on our peak week and then it kind of went back down to a max of maybe 30 all the way to the taper. Long runs felt great, the lower temperatures really helped to make it more pleasant. There were a few days of warm temperatures in October and November but other than that nothing too bad.

It all was going well, we were both doing our training together, until Res had work orders to leave to DC right after Thanksgiving. This meant Res wouldn't do the Marathon. She had trained for it and had all intention to do it, but our Country comes first and she loves serving it, just sucks when it gets in the way of a marathon.. c'mon Uncle Sam!!! Just Kidding :)

So anyways, Puli is flying (running) solo this weekend. The temperatures for those who have not checked are going to be COLD!!!! Brrrr

So if you want to follow Puli's endeavor through his first marathon on fresh legs, meaning he won't be swimming 2.4 miles nor riding 112 miles on his bike, here you can follow him here.

Stay tuned for his post race report as he thaws from the cold run :).

That elusive Marathon.... by Res

Some of you might think how come a marathon is elusive, you either sign up to do it or you don't. Well, here is a little story of my first full marathon on fresh legs (thats for another entry) that when I think is going to happen it doesn't.

It all started last year, we had finished our Austin 70.3 Ironman on October 28th, and after talking to our coach on the weeks prior to it (even prior to our crash) we had decided we were going to do the Dallas Marathon. What I didn't count with was that I was going to return from Austin with somewhat of an injury. My foot got swollen and really hurt, but after x-rays, dye CT-Scans and doctors nothing was wrong with it. By the it was already almost thanksgiving so there was no way for me to do that since the marathon was on early December. Felipe had thought of doing it but we had decided to wait to do it together as we always try to do things together. Even though we start together and 90% of the time don't finish together, just the fact of knowing he is around on the same course makes me feel like he is closer than if we was home or simply somewhere at the finish line waiting for me (it happens to him too). So we decided we weren't going to race after all.

Dallas Marathon Registration

A few months go by and we do our first ironman, yes it included a 26.2 mile run but since we seem to be doing things backwards, as we did a 70.3 half ironman before we did just the 13.1 run by itself, it seemed appropriate that we would do the 26.2 mile run after we did the 140.6 full ironman. We then signed up back in June or July (can't remember when) and we were all ready for our "running" season to start and be only running for a while. We started the training and I was called to serve our country with the Public Health Service in December. Guess what... The weekend of the marathon!!!. I love to serve our country don't get me wrong but thanks to our lovely shutdown a few weeks ago, they pushed my trip to December since November was out of the question. We were training, and to keep Felipe company on his long runs I continued training however was a bit bummed that I wasn't going to run it. Felipe will be running it while I keep track of him online and wait for him to tell me he finished his first full marathon. :(. It is a bittersweet feeling, while I'm proud of him for pushing his limits and wanting to do it alone, I am still sad I won't be able to do it with him, on top of losing the $100 registration fee.

Anyways... That's the story of my elusive marathon, not sure now when I will do it, next year we have to be smart with our training and racing since we are officially signed up for 2x140.6 distances, IronMan Arizona and Challenge USA (Atlantic City), don't want to be putting more than we need to as we know running a marathon will probably set us back on our progress since recovery probably take from our already busy training schedule.

Bourbon, running, and more running

Looks like its been a while since our last post. Life has been really busy lately. Besides work and normal life seems like we've been doing a whole lot of running lately. Just to share a bit of what we've bee up to here it goes.

Us and Marker's Mark Distillery

My legs... 

Two weeks ago we did the Bourbon Chase relay run, Res actually did a recap of the weekend on her brand new blog and you can read a bit about here. It was our anniversary weekend so we had a blast. Prior to that, we had been just keeping a low profile focusing on work stuff, house projects before the holidays and also trying to put our running miles for the Dallas Marathon coming up in December.

@ the races... breakfast of
champions

Peace - Love and Bourbon

Well, at the Bourbon Chase we put in 23 and 24 miles respectively, and it was a ton of fun. Her recap covers all the weekend highlights. Definitely something to do again, maybe once a year or every other year, planning takes a toll and the traveling it's pretty tough on your body too. Those start and go every couple of hours get you stiff.

Res smiling to the finish line

Morning shot

Anyways, a couple of months ago, not sure what I was thinking, maybe wasn't thinking, I had signed us up for the No Limits Half. The idea was to do a half marathon in the middle of marathon training. Well the idea sounded great at first, maybe no such much as we got back from Kentucky. We still got some massages done and put in some runs during the week, one was an actual race the Friends of the River party on the plaza 6k. They actually helped get the legs going from that stiffness. We got ready for our half marathon on Saturday October 26th. Funny to say now that in reality it didn't get much prepping, get out race belts and bibs, shoes, hydration , a couple gels and called it good, off to another training run. Didn't have many goals, we knew pulling a goal to beat our PRs was a long shot, we were still sore. Morning was cold, but perfect to run. I set off to do a 1:45 potentially, but wouldn't be disappointed if I had a 1:50 or something like that. I was doing great with a girl who pretty much kept me on pace for the 1:45 but at mile 8 or so my hamstrings and hip flexors were starting to bug me, not cramps just a little pain from the soreness, I had to pull back from the 1:45 pace and ended up right behind the 1:50 pacer, happy with my 1:51 (still a PR). Res came in at the 2:07, she looked so strong coming in that we could hardly see pain, but there was some. Not a PR on her end but still she did pretty good. Like we said, considering that we put in 45 miles in the lapse of a week it was a good day. Surprisingly enough, we weren't that tired after that... I even came back to mow the yard :) didn't let the lactic acid build up.

not a bad day afterall

Sunday there was a local Tri here by the house and we had some teammates doing it so we went and cheered with JayJay, was actually fun to cheer! it's our way of giving back to our great Tri friends and Tri community.  

A little of what I've been up to at work... yes OSU's Bullet

Last week we took it easy, legs needed a break from running and it was time to catch up on work stuff.  Not much running until we hit the weekend. We had 16 miles (2:20) on the schedule and I ended up with 14.7... Thought doing a route that seems to be easy on the bike was a good idea...errrrr not so much. All I can say is the out and back was boring but at least I knew what I was getting into. Needles to say I was done after that. I'll add that painting, moving furniture and doing house work the day before wasn't the best idea to prepare for a long run but life goes on and we have a life after all. That's something we've always had clear, we don't let our Tri/running life get in the way of our normal life. We still have to do home projects, work to pay the bills (and races) and really it's the balance to our life. That's the trick, managing that balance of doing it all without going too crazy on the workouts. 

Now we have only 5 weeks til Dallas marathon and training is going well, plan to recover! get the legs stronger and hope for the best! the sub 4:00 goal might still be reacheable I have to be smart about it and plan it well, but sticking to that plan and not get too excited on that day. 

Til then... Take care and be safe!