Day 2, March 27, 2011 Bataan!!!

We arrived at White Sands early enough to not have the worry of waiting in a long line of cars and were able to park very close to the starting area! That is a good thing; we could wait in the car while the wind gusted to at least 40mph and blew sand everywhere! Mellody named the wind Bob and Bob really blew that day! Bob blew so hard he seemed to move the rental car, and he forced the trees to bend over! Bob was however, good enough to blow a trash bag my way so I could wrap up in it in order to block some of the wind. LOL Bagpipes played for morning entertainment as we waited for the beginning of the opening ceremony. The three of us tried to stick together in the crowd and ended up near the front for the opening ceremony which began at 6:35am. The ceremony was very moving, as the role was called. First the survivors responded “here”, followed by the role call of all the survivors who have died since the last memorial march in 2010. No one answered. One of the survivors stood throughout the ceremony. He was wearing is full dress uniform with all his medals. What an impressive sight he was, and when the battle poem was recited, several cried out with a resounding YEAH! Then it was time for the fly over, courtesy of Holloman Air Force Base. The cannon sounded, and the group of Wounded Warriors started the march. 

 We had expected a wave start, but were warned during the opening ceremony that there were just too many of us to enforce corrals, so people just mingled and got into the starting chute when they were ready. No problems with all us civilians mixed in with all the military personnel! They seemed to be having as much fun as we all were!

I stopped to shake a few Bataan survivors’ hands on the way to the starting line. They are a proud group of men, totally deserving of this event to commemorate their suffering, and remember all the lives lost in service to our country. We were now out on the marathon course. The first part was relatively flat, though at a higher elevation than I am used to. We started out on the road for about the first mile before our turn off into the desert. This desert section was rolling and sandy, with little or no elevation gain. I started out running this section until I reached a team or group walking abreast, took a breather while following them, then ran to the next group of congestion, all the while trying to stay up wind of the blowing sand. I do not usually carry my camera with me during marathons, but really wanted to have photos from this one. I took several photos during this first section. I was making pretty good time under the conditions, averaging a 14:17 mile through mile 6. Then we turned out onto the road, preparing for the climb. I really expected the gaiters I was wearing to be a lot more effective at keeping the sand and rocks out of my shoes, but no luck. I had to stop here at the aid station and dump the debris out of my shoes, and needed a quick potty stop. There was a short climb out of the main base property, across highway 70, and then up the mountain into a 40mph headwind. Mellody caught up to me, (she took a lot more time shaking Bataan survivors’ hands than I did) and we made the climb together. I tried to take a picture of us with my camera and it would not open any more. Methinks me got sand in my camera.  I was amazed that the elevation did not bother me as much this time as it had at ET. I attribute this to Paleo. Of course, my big mistake that morning was not bringing any protein along for breakfast, (should have brought the turkey jerky or the buffalo jerky along) and the continental breakfast they were serving was all pastries, so no breakfast was presenting sort of an issue for me. I was fueling with my Hammer Perpetuem and Hammer Gel, eating a few oranges, taking my Endurolytes and alternating drinking Heed with water.

I had to stop at the next turn off into the desert to mix another bottle of Perpetuem, and it was still very windy, so I took a lot longer at this stop than I wanted to and Mellody took off ahead of me. It is all good when we do the same race, we can walk together, but we do our own race. I just enjoyed visiting with the soldiers, and took off when my fuel was mixed. We were still steadily climbing, and I was feeling strong… just slow. At this point, I already knew I was not going to break any land speed records, so decided just to enjoy the event. I had heard tales of an aid stop at mile 14 (the top of the climb) that would be selling hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and cold sodas. I was glad that I tucked a $10 into my fuel belt, because I was totally out of gas. I walked up to the table and told the guy I would pay the whole $10 for a couple of meat patties. “I’m hungry, and all I need is some BEEF!” That got a good laugh and $5 in change. My maniac friend Nina was sitting down finishing her hamburger, so I joined her. Those were the two best hamburger patties I had ever eaten. Now as it is time to rejoin the marathon, I came upon a young man with a picture of a Bataan survivor on his t-shirt. When I asked if that was his grandpa, he told me no, it was his great, great uncle. The young man must have only been about 14 years old, and he was not the youngest marcher I saw that day. I thanked him for being so tough!

The course began to head around the mountain with lots of rolling terrain along the way. I was still running a little on the down hill sections, mainly because it was easier to run down than to try and walk, risking slipping as some of the downs were pretty steep. I found out later from my other friend Deb (she is a nurse practitioner and stopped to render aid more than once during the race) that one soldier had fallen somewhere in this section, breaking his leg. The view from this side of the mountain was amazing! We could see the Organ Mountains, named such because the vertical rocks on the mountain peaks look like a pipe organ! White Sands Missile Range was also visible off in the distance (at +/-4500 feet), and far below the +/- 5,500 feet we were now motoring at. A border patrol officer was stationed at one of these high points on the course, I guess his job was to make sure all the people out there had race numbers attached to their uniforms.

The course then headed back to the road, and a steep downhill. I racewalked down the whole hill, averaging a 12:30 pace at this point, which was still pretty good, coming up on 20 miles of this really tough course. My racewalking form provoked a little teasing, which I took with a grin, inviting the soldiers to “Walk this Way!” HMMM, only 10k to go, and the infamous sand pit was still to come. As I made my way through the sand pit, which seemed more like the consistency of cat litter, I came upon two soldiers who were having serious muscle cramping issues. I had enough Endurolytes for me and maybe a couple of extras, but I gave each of them 4. I really hope it helped these two guys make it to the finish! I am sure I will never know, but it was the right thing to do at the time. I thought I would be ok with what I had left and I did still have some Heed. One more time, I had to sit down and dump the rocks out of my shoes, and this time I turned my socks inside out. I was told to get up off my ass because there were only 2 miles to go. I got up and caught the sergeant who had ordered me to get up… let him know I was passing him now. LOL I kept playing tag with a couple of other soldiers and one kept threatening to jump on my back so I could carry he and his pack to the finish. I said, come on, jump on – we will go down together!

I started to approach the finish area, and even at 7 hrs 25 minutes, there were lots of cheering spectators. I thought I would try to run across the finish line, since I had done a fair amount of running in this race. My legs simply said HELL NO, and both of my calf muscles locked up completely. I was very lucky not to fall on my face. Apparently, I needed more Endurolytes than I thought. ;) I grabbed the fence, stretched out those lead calf muscles, and proudly walked to the finish line! I had the key to the rental car, so walked straight to it and my Recoverite, pineapple juice and Fage Greek yogurt recovery shake. I was feeling fine, and looking for some of my friends who were also doing the race. I found Lori Sherwood and Susan Bell, her husband Britt and their friend Terri. We took some photos, and then I went to get some of the post race food. I asked for a hamburger patty, bratwurst and sauerkraut. No bread, still Paleo all the way. I could not eat it all and was hoping I would be able to eat a decent meal later… All I kept saying all day was fajitas for two, just for me!

I also had the good fortune to meet the parents of the young man who created the Bataan Memorial March as his ROTC project. It has grown into an awesome thing over the 22 years it has been held, and this young man should be very proud of himself.

Finally, Mellody found me and we went to watch more finishers coming in. We were beginning to worry about Deb, but she finished while we were looking the other way. Mellody had a great race, shaving time off her first Bataan march in 2007, and Deb shaved a lot of time off her first Bataan march in 2006. I was just happy to have finished! I have recently completed my first 100 mile race, and the difficulty level of this marathon is right up there with that, but the difficulties we faced here are NOTHING compared to what our military face EVERY DAY. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

We had our celebration meal of Mexican food, and all I could manage was a fajita salad with fresh sliced avocados, sliced tomatoes, sour cream and a roasted green chile on top!  It was delicious... and I did have flan for dessert, because if you climb a mountain in the desert, you deserve dessert!

I won't bore you with the details of the trip home... except to mention it was uneventful.  No accidents, no speeding tickets, no heavy duty border patrol activity.  I am happy to report we were not searched by the border patrol at the point of entry! Whew!

Bataan Trip Day 2, March 26, 2011

I woke up reasonably early, got dressed and went down to breakfast at the hotel. They really don’t have a good selection of food for folks who don’t eat grains. There were more muffins, Danish, bread and waffles in one small place than I have seen in a while. My choice was hard boiled eggs. I happened to have some venison and buffalo jerky in my hotel room, so that went down well with the boiled eggs.

Then Emily and I headed to the El Paso Saddleblanket Co. I exited the freeway and moved to the right lane so that I could get into the parking lot. Traffic was stopped by a red light, and did not begin moving when the light turned green. The vehicle two cars in front of me was disabled and did not have on any emergency flashers. I decided to move into the next lane, and as I got beside the car that had been in front of me, she decided to go around also, and turned right into the passenger door of my rocket ship. The damage was not too serious and no one was injured, so I chose not to call the police, and only exchanged information with the other driver. I drove on to the store to do a little shopping.

I have wanted to purchase a special belt for my Across the Years 100 mile belt buckle, since that was my first 100 mile finish. Emily helped me find an awesome hand crafted python skin belt, and it was not too expensive! We loved the store; there were some very interesting items for sale, including coffins with a western flair. “Oh, bury me not… on the lone prairie.”


We didn’t have anything else interesting to do, so we stopped for an espresso at Starbucks. Oh, I would like to make an observation here: People in this part of the country are very friendly! Store clerks, baristas, hotel clerks and wait staff were all very nice and helpful.  But, at almost every place we stopped, someone approached us, asking for money.

Next thing was to drive back to Las Cruces to wait for Mellody and Deb to arrive at the hotel. They were on the same flight, so were sharing the ride from the airport to the hotel. When they arrived, we got all settled in the room, and then headed back out to White Sands to check out the souvenirs. I had my certificate framed with the dog tag they give you instead of a medal. We really don’t deserve a medal for completing this memorial march. The sole purpose is to honor and remember. I also purchased a t-shirt, mug, magnet, tote bag and patch with the battle cry on them. I broke the mug, so went back inside to buy another one. They wrapped it very well so I would not break the second one, laughing all the while.  I was laughing too.

I really wanted to get my picture taken in front of the highway sign and the warning sign along the entrance of the missile range, so Mellody obliged.  




We also stopped so I could pose in front of the Bataan Memorial Highway sign...

 

 When we returned to the hotel, we decided to find a close place to eat our pre race meal. I am not carb loading anymore (except with sweet potatoes) so ate surf (lobster tail) and turf (rare petit sirloin) with grilled zucchini and steamed broccoli for dinner.



When we got back to the hotel, I met one of the Wounded Warriors, he is a Viet Nam vet, and had brought 30 of his comrades who were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan along to complete the march.

The three of us who were doing the march calculated that we should be on site at White Sands before 3am so as not to get caught up in a long line trying to get in. That meant we had to get to bed right after we ate and organized our things for the march. I had already done most of my organizing the night before, but I still have to obsess over the details. As usual, I donned the first layer of my race clothes so I can get ready faster in the morning. We went to bed really early, but considering we were getting up at 2am, there is no such thing as too early!

ok, that's day two of my weekend trip... more to come.  Race Day is next!

Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon, 3/27/2011 Part 1, The Trip

Prelude:
This race has been on my “To Do” list for a long time. It finally worked out this year because a couple of friends who I could share a hotel room with were also going.
The purpose of this event is to honor and remember what Filipino and American soldiers endured when they were surrendered to the Japanese in 1942. They were forcibly marched 60 miles (97 kilometers) with little or no food and or water and those to weak to continue the march were run over by trucks, bayoneted or shot to death. Their cry:
We’re the battling bastards of Bataan.
No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam,
No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces
And nobody gives a damn.
Here is a link to an article from the Las Cruces Sun News that gives a more complete account of the atrocities that occurred: http://reta.nmsu.edu/bataan/curriculum/introduction/history.html.


Day 1, March 25, 2011
Initially, I was going to drive out to Las Cruces by myself, but it turned out that my daughter Emily came along for the trip. She slept most of the way, but at least I wasn’t by alone. We made it to San Antonio for morning rush hour which was rather unpleasant, but things got easy as we made it farther west. Once you pass through Kerrville Texas headed west, the speed limit is 80 mph! Of course there are many people who would stretch that limit. I am not one to do that because there are Sherriff’s department vehicles and Texas state troopers all over the place out there.

The closer we got to El Paso, the more police we saw. The Border Patrol was also extremely active… I wonder if it was because it was Friday. Maybe the drug smugglers are more active on the weekends. We made our way to our hotel, a La Quinta on the west side of El Paso, got checked in and found a place to eat dinner. Then it was time to drive out to White Sands Missile Range for in processing. As I was driving out to the base from Las Cruces, I started to wonder what the hell I have gotten myself into. The terrain out there is very unforgiving, high desert surrounded by mountains, one of which we were going to have to climb. I called my mom and told here it was a good thing my life insurance was paid up. LOL

The base security is very strict, but we had all our documents in order so were allowed to enter. We proceeded on to drive right past the turn off the main road, missing the sign for Bataan In Processing completely. We turned around and saw the sign for “Tank Crossing”. Oh my.

Emily had to wait for me in the lobby and I went through the line to pick up race materials for Deb, Mellody and I. I think I had a lucky number: 3030. It seemed lucky at the time anyway. The next stop was getting our finishing certificates printed. They are really nice! I was very fortunate to have the time to speak to 3 of the survivors from the original Bataan Death March and they were very gracious, autographing everyone’s certificates. It was an honor to meet them and to be able to thank them for their service to our country. The next stop was to pick up our t-shirts. I did not spend much time looking at souvenirs because Deb, Mellody and I were planning to come back to the base on Saturday.

Bataan Death March Survivors

Emily and I walked out and drove up to the Missile Museum which is close to the exit. There are numerous missile systems on display, and they encourage photographs. We were able to get some nice pictures, even though the wind was really gusty!

Then it was time to drive back to El Paso for a good night’s sleep.

More to come...

Another Update

Hi there folks out in blog land. Sorry I have been a real slacker in the blog department.
The workouts and training for races have all gone according to plan. Looks like the last thing I wrote about was the Rocky Raccoon 50k trail race.

The next thing on the calendar after Rocky was the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon on November 15, 2009. I had a fantastic time in San Antonio, even though it was such a huge race. Total participants in the half and full marathon together exceeded 35,000. Isn't that amazing! When the half and full split off, from each other, the race got interesting. It was a lot hotter than expected, but I was not looking for a pr as I was still in training for the Big Rocky Raccoon 100 miler in February. I had the good fortune to meet a couple of my online training friends! Both extremely nice and supportive of my efforts leading up to a 100 mile walk at some point in the near future!

Anyway, total miles walked in November were 110.6, 57.2 miles of that total were races, the balance: training.

December was kind of a slack training month for me. I only walked 51.9 miles... and that it usually the way this works for me. Every other month is usually a fall back month.
Next race: The Texas Marathon on Jan 1, put on by Steve and Paula Boone of the 50 States Marathon Club. This was an awesome race! It was pretty chilly in the morning, and I drove over to Kingwood on race day. I had to leave home at about 3:30 in the morning, but that's ok. My new Hammer Nutrition fueling program dictates that I eat breakfast at least 3 hours before my race starts, so the timing was right on. I wore my Adidas Adizero RC racing flats, which are VERY light and I was wondering how my feet would feel at the end of 26.2 miles on concrete. The truth is... my feet never hurt, and I walked my first sub 6 hour marathon in almost a year! (5:59:19) yes... that's sub 6! LOL. The great thing about this race is that it is a looped course. You do the loop twice for the half or 4 times for the full. We met each other coming and going, so the race never got boring. I met another of my online walking buddies who is also a Marathon Maniac just like me! I walked with her for most of the first half of the race, and it is due to her great walking speed that I was able to get a good fast marathon done as part of the training for Rocky! The medal they give out at the end of this race is so huge that they have to give it to you in a box because if they put it around your neck, you will simply fall over. It weighs a kilogram. And the post race food??? a pizza buffet to die for and lots of chocolate chip cookies and REAL Coca Cola!

So, the rest of the month of January was all the time I had to build mileage for Rocky Raccoon on Feb 6. I ended up with 154 miles walked for the month of January with one big back to back weekend... 20 miles on Sunday and 26 miles on Monday. Then taper, which for me is a complete stop to training except for the hand to mouth exercise. LOL
I guess that kind of brings things back up to date, and I will be putting my thoughts about the 100 mile attempt together in the next couple of days.

Maryann aka malvs2walk! and yes... I still love to walk!

Las Vegas

So, I promised a little about the Las Vegas trip... I met Jean-Maria and Mellody out there for the ET midnight marathon. We had fun doing the marathon and would probably do it again if it wasn't for the 2.5 hour bus ride to and from the marathon start. Everything else about the marathon was great (read my previous blog post)! Donny from the walkingsite was also there, he did the half marathon.

When the three of us (the ladies) returned to the hotel after the bus trip, each of us had our turn in the shower. I was starving, but exhausted, so I just bought a turkey sandwich in the hotel lobby and took an hour or so nap. We were planning to go downtown to Fremont Street and feed at the trough (Golden Nugget Buffet) for our marathon celebration dinner. The food there is usually very good and did not disappoint! The waitress was some sort of a medium??? The four of us wore our medals and I was still sporting my alien tattoos, so the conversation quickly turned to aliens and auras and strange stuff like alien encounter healings. Whoah.

Mellody and I were by no means ready to go back to the hotel after dinner. We came to Las Vegas to have some fun! They are having a summer of '69 celebration at Fremont Street with the psychadelic hippy bus, a Beatles tribute band, classic cars and great light shows featuring lots of different types of music. The Beatles tribute band were 4 young men wearing wigs... they were really channeling the fab four until they bowed and one of them nearly lost his wig. Hilarious. We moved on and found an interesting casino that was full of antiques around the corner. We spent a little time looking at the display cases with antique slot machines, beautiful hand carved bars with marble counter tops and etc. When we walked back to the action on Fremont street, there was an awesome band playing medlies of all the great 60's rock tunes that everyone knows all the words to. Of course, I can't remember which ones they were right now, but we had a great time! People watching is the best! I don't have the pictures yet, but when I get them from Mellody, I will edit this post and add them.

We finally got tired and started looking for the taxi stand at the Golden Nugget so we could get a ride back to our hotel. The guy out front was being a real asshole and would only seat customers in a particular brand of taxi. I am sure after the ride went around a few extra blocks that he was getting something extra for his attitude. Oh well, lesson learned, although I'm not so sure there would have been anything we could have done to avoid getting taken for the proverbial ride. Except for what we did. NOT. Tip.

I won't tell you the reason, but I am going to be really careful about where I wear a particular yellow shirt in the future. It's a secret. Anyway, we got back to our hotel and decided to walk across the street to the Hard Rock and have a milkshake. There it is. The marathon celebration cocktail. Mellody had chocolate, and I had espresso. It was awesome. So, I was about to fall asleep in the booth at the Hard Rock, and barely made it back across the street to our hotel as I had only slept about 5 hours in the last 65 hours and also walked 26.2 miles in the desert at high altitude (for me).

I slept until 9am Monday and woke up starving only to find that the continental breakfast ended at 9am on weekdays at our hotel. Mellody jumped out of bed, threw on her cap and last night's clothes and brought us some breakfast. Thankfully she made it and was able to grab some food before they got it all put away.

We got ourselves dressed and started for the strip! It was hotter than hell, but we were primed for some fun after finally getting a little sleep! My only real request for the trip was to ride the roller coaster at New York, New York. That was our first stop and we did not want to ride it after lunch. Here is the proof:

So, we had great fun on the roller coaster, then started out to look for a place I could get the one thing I crave sometimes after a marathon. A Blackened Bleu Cheeseburger. We looked at the menus of several establishments before finding it on the menu at the ESPN Zone, and it was heavenly. I even chose to be really good and have a bowl of fresh fruit instead of french fries. Here is another funny thought that goes through my head once in a while... When I was 15, I used to wait tables at a small town family restaurant. I always laughed (under my breath of course) at the older women who ordered hamburgers with coffee to drink. Well, it is true that you become what you laugh about... coffee is my drink of choice, even with hamburgers.

Now back to the hotel to get ready for the show. Mellody had a dinner date with an old friend, so Jean-Maria and I wandered around the Venitian for a little while and stopped at Haagen Daaz for an ice cream. I chose to buy a ticket to see the Phantom of the Opera so Jean-Maria could get some rest as she was still recovering from a broken foot and walked the marathon anyway. Mellody had purchased her ticket a long time ago. We planned to meet up after the show and wander around the strip for a while longer afterwards as it was our last night in Vegas. Surprisingly, the strip was totally crowded, even on Monday evening. You certainly can't tell there is an economic downturn from the numbers of people vacationing in Vegas.

The biggest problem is finding the exit in the casino when you are ready to leave. Those places are so huge, it is easy to make the same wrong turn more than once. They don't allow taxis to stop on the street to pick up fares like they do in other big cities, you have to find the taxi stand which is usually located at the valet entrance to each hotel. It seems that you need to start looking for you exit strategy at least an hour before you plan to leave. Anyway, we got a great taxi this time, and he took us directly to our hotel without going around any blocks. This guy did get it. The Tip.

Back to the room, my stuff was scattered about, so I took the time to organize it somewhat so I would not have to pack it all in the morning just before leaving for the airport. We did get to eat a decent breakfast at the hotel... I would recommend the Hyatt Place in Las Vegas for anyone who likes comfort without all the noise and activity that goes with any of the casino hotels. It is a non-gaming establishment and all the rooms are non-smoking. Also great for a bunch of marathoners.

The flights home were uneventful, and it was great to be home, even though the trip was too short.

Here are two more pictures... the medal and the race shirt from ET. Thought you might want to see them.

ET Extraterrestrial Full Moon Midnight Marathon

I had been anticipating this trip to Las Vegas and the race for a long time. Since I did not do so well at Mohican, but got a lot of hill practice done there, I felt I could do pretty well at this marathon. I had not really considered the effects of higher altitude and dry air to a coastal plains dweller like myself. So, it was a slow marathon, but still a lot of fun and finishing is the goal, after all.

Now I must return to the beginning of the tale. My bags were mostly packed by Thursday because I had to work out of town on Friday and my flight was scheduled to leave Houston at 6:20 am on Saturday. I live about one hour away from the big airport, so that meant getting up at 3:30 am for the drive. I did not get to sleep until after 1am. Remember that this is a midnight marathon. It starts at midnight. Did I say that the race started at midnight Saturday??? I arrived in Las Vegas (after a short layover in Denver) at around 10:30 am Saturday. I called the hotel to see when the free shuttle would be arriving to take me to the hotel. They said, oh, about 10 minutes. There was a couple waiting before I walked outside the airport, and in my usual manner, I was having a conversation with them in no time. I found out that they were staying in the same hotel and had already been waiting at least 10 minuets before I walked outside. The hotel is 5 minutes from the airport and I was finally in the hotel room by noon.

Mellody and Jean-Maria were already in the room the three of us were sharing. I was starving at this point, so the three of us walked across the street to eat at Lucky’s in the Hard Rock Casino. It was nearly 12 hours from race time, so I carb loaded on blueberry pancakes and also ate a little bacon for protein. We walked over to CVS, and I bought a gallon of water to mix my electrolyte drink for the marathon. I finally tried to get a little nap (maybe 90 minutes) and it was time to pick up the race packet. We met another friend at packet pickup, WalkingDonny, who was walking the half marathon. The shirts are awesome, with little aliens and a space shop on the front! We go back upstairs and start getting ready for the race. We boarded the charter buses for a 2.5 hour ride to the starting line at the black mailbox on the Extraterrestrial Highway. It is a good thing it was dark outside. I don’t think it would have made me feel better to actually see the mountain we had to climb before the race. It was bad enough seeing it while riding the bus back from the finish line to Las Vegas. I am really glad I brought the long sleeved race shirt with me in a drop bag because it was cold and windy and I ended up wearing it under my crazy shirt for the whole race. We picked up our glow necklaces and used the dreaded port-a-potties, posed for some pictures and visited with new found friends.

I think the race started on time at midnight, although I can’t be sure because I lost my reading glasses somewhere out there. Everyone was either wearing a headlamp or carrying a flashlight and we were all wearing reflective clothing. We were off, and as usual, I started out too fast. I got stuck with a couple of groups of beeping Galloweenies that I kept trading places with. The worst thing about a group of Galloweenies is the fact that they pass you jogging, then stop to a snails walking pace RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, every time they pass you. It was especially irritating to me during this race because at this point, I am going on 3.5 hours of sleep. So, that made me pick up the pace even more so that I did not see them again until much later in the race when I started to slow down. Anyway, the aid stations at this race were about 3.5 miles apart, so you had to carry a water bottle. Not a problem for me, I always carry at least my fuel belt on shorter walks and both the fuel belt and a hand held on longer walks. I was feeling great, but with the climbing (not so steep in the first few miles, but steadily climbing) and the higher altitude (over 4,500’at the starting line) I thought I was moving much faster than I really was. By the 9 mile mark, I noticed that my breathing was becoming labored and shallow, so I consciously reminded myself to belly breathe like when doing yoga. I was tired, so I had to keep reminding myself to breathe deeply so that my muscles could get the oxygen they needed to keep moving forward. It was so nice to turn off the lamp and walk with the moonlight in the desert. I turned it on only when I saw that a car was approaching in the distance. A few times I looked down at the road surface and saw what appeared to be scorpions scurrying across the road. During this first half of the race, I also saw numerous shooting stars. I kept glancing to the south, into Area 51, looking for signs of the unknown, but sadly I saw no aliens or unidentified objects.

The last part of the climb over Coyote Summit, between mile 9 and mile 13 was progressively steeper, but I kept concentrating on my breathing and pressing forward. It was, however, not the smartest thing I have ever done, because by the time I crested the summit and headed back down the other side; I had run out of steam. Maybe the fact that I finally got to see my time at the half marathon point (3:09:??) also took some of my steam.

I felt something over head and it turned out to be some kind of small bird. I have not seen too many kinds of desert creatures, but when I turned toward the bird as it landed on a rock by the far side of the road, its eyes had a strange orange glow when it looked back at me.

Well, now the hard part was supposed to be over and it was all downhill from here. I passed a young man who had just been passed by another woman. He said “So What, So What!” I thought he was mad because he had been passed by a girl, then he sings another line from the song. Oh, my goodness… how funny! I knew what he was singing along with, and man was it vulgar! I had to turn around and tell him I knew he was singing “So What” from Metallica’s two disc set called Garage, Inc. I thanked him for the laugh and continued on.

Now that I was fully aware that I was going to have a crummy finish time, I planned to just have fun and finish. I ended up walking most of the rest of the race with a lady I offered a sample size body glide to when she said her shorts were wet, and she was surely going to have problems later in the race. We walked and talked and looked at the stars and talked some more. She was very interesting.

I have been studying hydration issues more fully lately because I have begun to have problems with swelling hands, even on shorter walks. It seems like I am starting to get it under control, because my fingers did not swell until much later in this marathon. They also did not swell as much as they have been swelling lately. The next issue is the bathroom issue. We were warned well in advance that there would only be porta potties at the start, then maybe 3 more along the marathon course. I passed the first 2 course potties because I just did not have to go. As I passed the 18 mile marker, I started to feel the need for a potty break. I could have just walked off to the side of the road and pottied in the moonlight, but I just kept telling myself I could wait until mile 20. That is when I had the hallucination. There was more and more traffic on the road as the night went on, so I had to keep the headlamp on most of the time. Everyone who walks at night knows that there is a tunnel vision effect after wearing a headlamp for long periods of time. This is a two lane highway with a very narrow shoulder on each side, so there is really no place to go if cars are zooming past rather quickly. One of the zoomers was a bus. I nearly got blown off the road. We were walking toward traffic and as I looked to my right I could have sworn there was a concrete barrier on the yellow line in the middle of the road. I kept looking over to make sure I was not seeing things. I also needed to get to the potty at the 20 mile mark in a really bad way. The lady I was walking with also needed to get there in a hurry. This was the actual finish line of the race where we had a 10k out and back to do, and then the race is over. As we got closer to the potty, I was still convinced that there was a concrete barrier separating the lanes of the road. The lights of the little town of Rachel started to illuminate the road, and the concrete barrier just kind of disappeared. (My friend Mellody had the same hallucination in about the same location although she was about a mile behind me) Luckily my race companion had relieved herself earlier so she let me go first. What a relief! One of the aid station volunteers was wearing a Sunmart ultra jacket, so I had a short hello, look at my cap moment. I wore my Sunmart cap during the race.

Now the last and toughest part of the race because we had to walk past the finish line and still had 10k to go. I don’t remember when the sun started to come up, but we were finally able to turn off the headlamps and saw lots of jackrabbits! We also saw a dead rattlesnake on the road. Thankfully that was the ONLY rattlesnake we saw. I was able to walk a 14 minute mile one time during the last 10k, but it took all I had to make it across the finish line. I received my medal which is really awesome. It is an alien wearing running shoes, chasing his spaceship on a black background with the Calico Racing emblem on it.

There was a nice breakfast buffet at the Little A’lien Inn that consisted of pancakes, biscuits, eggs, hash browns, gravy, and fresh fruit. Everything was really good and the staff appeared to be genuinely happy to see us! Mellody and Jean-Maria finished in that order and after we had eaten our breakfast and bought a few souvenirs, it was time to board the bus back to Las Vegas. We went back over the mountain we had to climb from the start, and since it was now daylight, we were really able to see the beauty of the countryside we had passed through in the darkness, oh, and the steep climb that we had made during the night.

This was a fantastic race with a great RD and lots of wonderful volunteers who stood out in the desert all night to make sure we were alright. Thanks to everyone involved with putting the race on!

One thing, I had no idea that the altitude would bother me so much. It is for that reason and that reason ONLY that I would not consider repeating this event, though I will highly recommend it to anyone who asks me. From now on, altitude will be one of the factors that come into play when I choose future races.

Thanks for reading! (stories from Las Vegas to follow soon enough)

Oh, and yes… malvs2walk!

ET Extreterrestrial Marathon stuff

So, I will be leaving Saturday morning for Las Vegas and the ET Extraterrestrial marathon... held on the Extraterrestrial Highway north of the Nevada Test Site also known as Area 51. The fun thing about this one is that it starts at midnight. The finish line is at the Little A'lien Inn in Rachel. They have a marathon, half marathon, 51k ultramarathon and a 10k. When someone asked me which race I was doing... I replied, just the marathon. That seems really funny for me to say just a marathon.

We pick up our race materials at the Hyatt in Las Vegas, get our stuff ready and ride a bus to the Black Mailbox, where the race starts. The moon will be just a couple of days past full, so the headlamp will have some help. Forecast temps are in the mid 50's F with possible gusty winds. Race starts at app. 4,500' elevation and climbs to 5,700' or so by mile 12.8 where we cross Coyote Summit. It is all downhill from there. It is going to be real interesting going from 100's in the daytime to 50's at night, but it should make for a pleasant experience. Oh, and it is open range, so there is a chance of getting up close and personal with cattle that most probably rarely have any human contact. Sounds like fun, right???

The other interesting fact is that the only walk I have done this week since Saturday was today after lunch. I walked a whole mile to the bank, then to City Hall and back. Total was about 1 mile. Tomorrow I will be working at the mattress store all day. I'll certainly get a good workout there!

I'll be back in touch after the marathon. That is the only thing about Las Vegas trip I plan to report on, oh, except the roller coaster ride and possibly one of the rides on top of the Stratosphere. I hope the coaster pics turn out good, if so, there will be photo evidence...

April 26, 2009 - Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

I will start out by saying this was the BEST large scale marathon I have done to date. The aid stations were full of volunteers and well stocked with all manner of things. They had enough GU for an army and an army of people to hand it out. I HIGHLY recommend this marathon. Yes, the climate can be tough in Oklahoma City, and the course is kind of hilly, but if you are well prepared for the conditions, you will have a great time!

Now, I will start at the beginning. Of course I didn’t get enough sleep the night before I left for Oklahoma City. I finally went to bed Friday night at about 11 pm after putting my things in the car. I set the alarm for 2:45 am, because I intended to leave by 3am. I live about 450 miles from Oklahoma City. It was part of my plan to leave so early because I was going to take the early start for the marathon (4:30am) on Sunday and since I am not a morning person, getting up early Saturday would force me to be in bed early Saturday night. I was on the road by 3:10 am. I reached Bryan/College Station at around 4:30 am and there was a terrible storm in the area. Cars were in the ditch, and several were stopped, I assume they were waiting for the storm to subside a little. I continued on because I didn’t want to lose any time. I slowed down, of course, and good thing, because water was pooling in places along the road. I made it safely through the storm, thank goodness. The lightening show was impressive.

The expo was not as large as I expected, but well laid out. First, we were directed to the back of the room to pick up the packet and pre-scan the timing chip, then around the other side of the room to pick up the t-shirt and goodie bag. After I collected my things, I went for a look around to see if there was anything I could not live without. The only purchase was a buy 1 - get 1 half price special on Thorlo socks. I listened to a couple minutes of Joan Benoit Samuelson’s pre-race comments, and then went on to the hotel to eat lunch and finish getting my gear ready for the race. I still had to mix my electrolyte drink, and put my food and gels in the right pockets. That all done, I was leaving to go back downtown and Laura Leigh arrived at the hotel. I was glad to see her! We left for the pasta dinner together after she brought her things in to the hotel.

Before dinner, we had a little walk around town and through the memorial. When Laura Leigh explained the significance of the Memorial to me, I was really moved by its simplicity.

As we arrived at the pasta dinner, my cell phone started ringing, and I saw Jean-Maria before I could get my phone out and answer it. Patty, Jean-Maria, Laura Leigh and I had dinner together (pasta, no protein, a nice light sauce, salad, breadstick, and huge chocolate chip cookie ;-) and got to know each other. Good thing Jean-Maria had her camera because I forgot mine as usual. We found someone to take the group photo, and then it was time to go back to our hotels. We were fortunate enough to find the porta potties near the start. It is a great honor to be the first to use one of those things… and these were the deluxe models. There was plenty of paper, and they even had hand sanitizer dispensers.

Once we arrived back at the hotel, there were a few things left to do, and it was difficult to get into bed. Once in bed, I fell asleep immediately, just like I planned. I never even got up to use the restroom. The alarm went off at 3 am, and I was ready to get up. I didn’t expect much hoopla at the early start, but the race director was there to welcome us, getting us pumped up for the race. They played God Bless America and The National Anthem, and it was time to start. After a few pre-race instructions, we were off. They had plenty of protection for the early starters in the form of motorcycle police and course marshals on bicycles. There were even a couple of the water stops open for us. I didn’t expect that at all. The volunteers all along the course were the most enthusiastic I have ever seen at a race. Some were even begging us to take their water, like some must be better than others. One station was set up to look like the Big Top, with large stuffed tigers and such in cages. I have never been cheered on by so many volunteers, every time I thanked someone for volunteering; they thanked me for participating in the race. If I said: “YOU’RE AWESOME,” they said: “NO, YOU’RE AWESOME!” What a race. There were children along the course giving high fives to runners and walkers; I don’t remember one part of the course where there were not spectators present. There were even spectators where the course went along the lake path. There were Indian drummers as we exited the lake path and headed back toward the city. The wind was awfully strong all day, but that didn’t deter the spectators. The closer I got to the finish line, the more spectators were present. I started hearing the cheers of the finish line crowd about a mile away. The announcer was very enthusiastic, he was reading our names and calling them out to the crowd as we finished. 6:49:59; my slowest marathon to date, but this was a training walk.

The post race food was great; they had all sorts of Keebler cookies and Carl’s Junior cheeseburgers. I was feeling pretty crummy; the right knee was hurting pretty badly after the post race stretch. I pretty much limped back to the car for the ride to the hotel. Once there, I iced my knee for about 20 minutes and took 3 Ibuprophen (which I don’t normally do). The knee was still a little tender when we went to dinner to celebrate another marathon completed. We went to a local landmark called Cattleman’s and I had a sirloin (something else I don’t normally do). The steak was really good, so were the buttered baked potato and the huge buttered yeast roll. Did I say butter??? When we got back to the hotel, Laura Leigh had to leave so I was on my own. I thought about going to see Patty and Jean-Maria at their hotel; but we were under a tornado warning. I didn’t want to be stranded at another hotel and not get any sleep, so I just stayed put. Once I went to sleep at about 9pm, I didn’t get up until about 8am the next morning. I loaded up the car and started driving south.

The funniest thing happened. I called Jean-Maria to see how she and Patty were doing, and found out they were only about 5 miles ahead of me and stopping for breakfast. I didn’t tell them I was going to stop, I just found the place they said they stopped and walked in. I wish you all could have seen the look on Patty’s face when I walked in. It was priceless. The rest of the drive home was uneventful, except for more thunderstorms.

Today, I feel better. My knee doesn’t hurt anymore, and I am not over tired. I will be back out there training for Mohican tomorrow.

just a quick one.

So, I am getting ready to leave town for the clinic and marathon. I am really excited, nervous, frantic, crazy.

My mom and I plan to have a real nice visit with her sister (my aunt). I will be real busy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but family is very important to me.

My sciatica is still acting up, but I won't let that stop me. I didn't get a whole lot of relief from the chiropractor. Maybe he was just the wrong guy for me. His idea was to see me every other day for two weeks. I really don't think that is necessary, I can't afford it, and if my back is in that bad of shape, maybe I should just hang up the ol' walking shoes. Like that will ever happen.

I will be away from computer access while I am gone, but I am taking along a journal so that I can write my thoughts down. I will also keep a food log.