Mizuno 10K

Last night I carbo-loaded on a double order of Hainanese Chicken Rice, which is a local specialty here in Singapore. For good measure, I topped it off with a sampling of durian, an incredibly popular fruit here available only in the summer months, but also one that comes with a pretty strong odor - overwhelmingly pungent to some, odorless to others. Go figure. Nevertheless, chicken rice and durian ... not your everyday pre-race meal.

This morning was humid as usual, but the sun remained hidden behind a high cloud cover. At 7:00 am, I arrived at the Kovan MRT Station, one of the stops along the North East subway line. Outside, about a thousand or more people were already milling about. A quick stretch, and even quicker warmup, and I was ready to go. I took a GU and went to the water station for water, but they weren't giving out any. Free watermelon slices though, so I took one. GU and watermelon juice. That's a new one too. I hoped it wasn't some unknown no-no combination.

About 7:20 am, everyone started to gather under an inflatable arch start line in the parking lot. The race was scheduled to begin at 7:30 am. It seemed early, but without even an announcement, the air horn sounded and we were off. There was a sharp hairpin turn up an incline to get out of the parking lot, which quickly became a bottleneck 20 seconds into the race. Several of us jumped a low metal fence to bypass the turn. About a quarter mile later, we spilled out onto a main road, on which most of the out and back race was run.

A run's a run, and halfway around the world, I tried to fall into my pace. I was aiming for a marathon race pace of 9:09/mile, which was on my training schedule for today. One thing I did notice is that most of the runners were pretty disciplined runners. Unlike most of my other races, I did not have to contend with walkers and other out-of-gas jackrabbits in the early stages of the race. Most of the runners were local Singaporeans, with a sprinkling of Europeans, Aussies, and maybe Americans (hard to tell unless they start talking ... grunting, wheezing, and hard breathing doesn't reveal much!).

I made the turn at 25:30, and brought it home in 53:49. About a minute faster than planned, and since I don't run that many 10Ks, this is also a PR for me! After the race, I picked up the goodie bag with a really nice Mizuno short sleeved tech shirt ... a fantastic value since the race fee was only Sing$15. That's about US$9.50! This race fit perfectly with my training plan, and I got a good training shirt to go with it. Not too shabby for a morning's work.

Beer 'n Curry

A little marathon training indulgence. Check out the dinner plates, or lack thereof, at the Banana Leaf Apollo Restaurant in the Little India section of town. All washed down with Singapore's local Tiger Beer. Mmmm Mmmm Good!

Postcard From Singapore

Greetings from Singapore! We arrived just past midnight local time Wednesday morning. It's been 13 years since I was last here, and 26 years since I moved from Singapore to the States. It feels like walking into a familiar old building, except that all the furniture's been moved around. Oh, but they left the heat on of course. And the humidifier. Lots of them.

Eager to shake the jet lag and test my running in this humidity, I went out an EZ 5 mile out and back on Wednesday morning. I cheated the heat and started at 5:30 am, running on 3 hours sleep. The run was fine, but within minutes, I was sweating profusely. In this humidity, my new discovery is that wicking shirts don't wick worth a lick (sorry, a little literary indulgence). At the turnaround, I went shirtless, which meant most of my sweat now went towards soaking my shorts instead! It felt like my shorts were vacuum packed directly on me. I hoped it didn't look that way too.

Undaunted, I went out for another EZ run this morning, aiming for 6 miles. I went out at 7:00 am this time, running on 11 hours sleeps. Yup, 11 hours! I laid out a loop route this time, which would take me past my old torture chamber high school. The Anglo-Chinese School was founded in 1886 by British missionaries, and stood atop a small hill. A single road led up the hill on one side and down the other, making almost a complete circular loop. Occasionally, we were made to run this loop for Phys Ed or other sadistic reasons. I don't recall a single instance when I was able to complete this loop without walking or without stopping. In my mind, they might as well have asked me to walk across the Red Sea; it just wasn't going to happen. Except today. In 5:15 flat. Couldn't have been more than 2/3 mile. Unbelievable. Childhood Demons : 0, Me : 1.

Other than running, it's been one gastronomic exercise after another. There's just some stuff you can't get in Dallas, and not even in NYC. Here's my three girls, my dad, and I at a local food market for breakfast and groceries:

where I snapped this pic of a fruit or vegetable that I have never seen before in my life. I still don't know what it is:

Any ideas?

Catch You On The Other Side

We leave tomorrow for Singapore. It'll be our end of summer vacation, coming back just before school begins in early August. 13 hours to Tokyo, plus 7 more hours to Singapore, is going to be a long long flight.

I hope to keep my training schedule while I'm there. I missed one run this week because something I ate gave me a fever, chills, and a different kind of runs than I was planning. My doctor said he's seen a lot of that lately; makes me wonder why. How does a whole city suddenly start having more cases of food poisoning than usual?

Today it's 102F + 27% humidity in Dallas, and 90F + 89% humidity in Singapore. I'll be testing first-hand that old "it's not the heat, it's the humidity" thing. Uh-huh. If I survive the humidity, next Sunday, I'm signed up for the Mizuno Wave 10K there. On the plus side, there's a 12 hour difference in time zones, so I should be wide awake for my 6:00 AM runs!

What Was RW Thinking?

This has been bugging me since I got my issue of RW a couple of weeks ago. I don't know why I can't just let it go. On two separate topics, I think RW did a big disservice to our running community.

Revisionist Drinking: New Rules On Hydration

The whole article could be summed up in this quote: "If you come up to a water station and you're ambivalent about downing a cup, you're not thirsty and you don't need to drink. But if you see the water at the station and crave it, then you're truly thirsty and should have a drink."

WTF?

1. It's not that black and white. Everyone already knows what to do if you're either bloated or dying of thirst. So what are you supposed to do in between?

2. It doesn't say how much to drink, a sip, a few sips, the whole cup, chug the Gatorade bucket?

3. It doesn't account for how far apart the water stations are. Are we supposed to keep passing each station, getting progressively thirstier until we really "crave" a drink, and then the next station is a killer to get to?

Personally, I'll keep drinking a few sips to half a cup at every station, unless I feel like drinking more at any one station.

The Marathon Experiment: How We Turned A Slacker Into A Finisher

This guy wasn't just a slacker, he was a non-runner! WTF again!

1. Seriously folks, do we really want to encourage first-time NON-RUNNERS to go for it in 18 weeks to run a marathon? Is this how we want to get people started with a lifelong love for running?

2. How many RW readers do you think are closet non-runners? Who's in this non-running customer segment that RW is trying to reach with this article? Are we in that slow a news month?

3. Anyone know of a good swimming magazine for non-swimmers? I've always wanted to swim across the English Channel ... can I still do it before Thanksgiving?

Liberty 5K 2.65 miler

When's the last time this happened to you? Line up for a 5K race. 8:00 am and sun's already bearing down hard. Without warning, horn goes off and everyone starts running. No mile markers, but course is familiar from previous year's races. Trudging along a residential neighborhood and 10 mins pass by. Hmm, no water stops. Never mind, don't need any yet. 15 mins go by. Turn a corner and we're back close to where we started. That was fast?! Whoa, those speed workouts really worked! Cross the line in 20:45, a miraculous PR by almost 4 mins! Too good to be true ... and of course, it wasn't.

I knew it before I crossed the finish. Later, I overheard some front-runners talking to a race official, telling him that one of the race workers had blocked off the turn we were supposed to take, and directed everyone down the shortened path. The online results now lists the race as the "Liberty 2.65 Mile Race". Sadly, it showed I was on a PR pace, but I don't think I trust their 2.65 mile measurement! It was hot, and I was sucking wind close to the end.

On the bright side, marathon training week 1 is history. To make up for the Saturday faux pas, I ran 6 on Sunday morning to get in the "long" run the training plan called for. The run was book-ended by one of my 10-yr old's birthday slumber party at the local Embassy Suites. 5:00 pm to 11:00 pm Saturday with a bunch of free-spirited independent-thinking going-on 5th grade girls is quite a blast! I left the good wife to supervise the party overnight ("no boys allowed - i.e. me"), slept at home, ran Sunday morning, and rejoined the party at 9:00 am while they were just getting up! Just so you know we don't play favorites, my other 10-yr old had her birthday party last week. The gym rat had it at, where else, her gym! Can you tell one loves frogs and the other loves monkeys? Fraternal twins, oh yeah.

Marathon Training Started Without Me

Oops.

When I registered for MCM, I dusted off my 16-week marathon training spreadsheet, entered the 10/29 race date, and back-filled the weekly dates to get to a training start date of 7/2. With that in mind, I always thought my training would start the first week of July. Except that I checked again today, and training should've started the week ending 7/2 ... i.e. this week. Still, it's only the first week, and I was supposed to do 3/3/3 on Tue/Wed/Thu followed by 6 on Sat. Instead, I happened to do 4/0/4 on Tue/Wed/Thu and tomorrow I'm doing the Liberty 5K race here in Dallas.

So I might not get all the miles in this week, but I think I'll still walk away well trained. Why? Because of a heck of a workout yesterday and today trimming trees in my backyard. Every July 4th, the well-heeled members of the Gleneagles County Club here in Plano assemble at the club for an All-American Buffet followed by a spectacular private fireworks display. Non-members such as yours truly, assemble the family clan at our house for a big, boisterous dinner, followed by pool-side seats to view the same so-called "private" fireworks display directly across our back yard! We're barely a mile and a half from the club, so it's almost as good as being there!

I only managed to trim two of the four large trees I have in the back, but even that led to this mountain of a pile of brush for the recycling truck to pick up. It easily took over a hundred trips from the backyard to the back driveway, carrying or pulling branches, and stacking them on top of this pile. Some of the logs you see must have weighed a good 40-50 lbs each. It took 6 hours total to do this, 3 unplanned dips into the pool to cool off, 1 slightly twisted ankle (but not enough to keep me from my race tomorrow), and miraculously, 0 broken bones or chain-saw mishaps! I'm marking this down as "cross-training" on my marathon training spreadsheet!

50 Yards and Olympic Glory

At the annual Dadfest 5K in Dallas today, they inaugurated the 50 yard dash, which this Dad was all over! I signed up our 4-yr old, Sydney, and got her all psyched up, carbed up, and well rested last night for a 6:45 am wake-up call. She even caught an extra 15 mins power nap on the drive over to the Pizza Hut Park, home to FC Dallas.

A thunderstorm had blown through overnight and it was unusually cool, overcast, and windy this morning. We got there in plenty of time to get ready before the 7:45 am start.

The race was run in waves of 6-8 runners, which sometimes ballooned to 12-14 runners because, well, 3 and 4-yr old kids don't always follow instructions closely and when the big man with the loud voice yells "GO!", sometimes you just gotta take off and run!

Sydney was in the 3rd or 4th wave, and I stood behind her waiting for the signal. Mom and sis waited at the other end, ready with the camera. At the last minute, she turned and said she wanted me to run with her, and I said I would follow behind her but don't wait for me!

Finally, the big guy says "GO!" and off she went. With blazing speed, she lit up the concrete and coasted to an easy finish, barely breaking a sweat! And the best part ... they all got a medal! What a way to make the little kids happy!

The 5K started a little past 8:00 am. Unbelievably, it was my first race of the year. I usually sign up for several races beginning in March, but with travel and soccer games and gym meets and volleyball tournaments, I just didn't get around to it until now. It felt "good" to run again, but I quickly got that deja vu feeling of eagerly signing up for the race, can't wait for it to start, and then gasping for air mid-race and wondering again why I put myself through this torture?

Oh, and the Olympic part of this story ... guess who started off the 5K? All Around Gold Medalist in the 1984 LA Olympics, Mary Lou Retton!

This made my other daughter and gymnast-in-training, Stephanie's day, and she even passed up a sleepover at a friend's house last night so she could follow her 'ol Pop to a run meet this morning! Now, if only Mary Lou had told her to eat more protein and don't forget her vegetables ...

It's Supposed To Hurt Like Hell!

That's how a perfect race is supposed to feel, according to Dean Karnazes' junior high school coach. It's in his book, Ultramarathon Man, which I just finished and I can't say enough good things about. For a runner, it's a truly humbling and inspiring read. I'm not about to sign up for an ultra, but I'm sure as hell not going to complain about any more nit-picky little crap that goes on during my "short" runs. At least for the next few days ...

But there's one hurt that did feel like hell, the $119.95 kind. That's what I needed to give today to get these. I tried once to go with the cheaper Brooks Addiction 7, but it felt too squishy and I eventually gave up running in them.

So since I started running, I've really only worn these Brooks Beasts, starting with the blue/gold on top, then the all-grey in the middle, and now in my favorite color: ORANGE! Well, just a bit of orange, but I'll take it. Also new this year - a $10 price increase, which offset the $10 coupon that the Run On store here in Dallas gives out every once in a while. Things could be worse I suppose.

I'm back in Dallas this week after 4 months in NYC. I had a great time running all around Manhattan, but now it's back to the heat and the old stomping grounds for a while. I've got a 5K coming up this weekend, and I'd like to get used to the heat by then. Did 6 miles Sunday, and 4 miles Tuesday, both times going out at 6:30 am to beat the heat, which was in the mid-70s even then. But hey, no more whining, right? It's supposed to hurt like hell!

The Wait Is Over And The Pain Begins

I thought about posting this same title last night, but didn't want to jinx my lottery chances for the NYC Marathon. It occurred to me that the title would work either way ... the pain of training if I got in, or the pain of not getting picked if I didn't! I needn't have worried, because I didn't @#%$+?>*&(^ get in! And to add to the indignity of it all, I had to wait through 25 minutes of server timeouts on the NYC website before it finally let me see the big N-O next to my entry. If they say the results will be posted at 11:00, why don't get it ready by 11:00 instead of taking the server offline starting at 11:00 and then taking 25 minutes to load it back up? Don't they know some x0,000 people like me are hitting the refresh button every 10 seconds? But I'm not bitter ...

... because I'm going to D.C.! Oorah! Yup, I quit pitying myself long enough to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct 29, and I can't wait! Plus, all the RBF meetup reports like this one from Anne in San Diego are making me anxious to get out there and meet some of you too, and I think it'll be a great time. As far as I know, Bex is leading this stellar crew! Good luck everyone!