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...

Catching up

I tried to make a commitment to write at least one blog post a week… and I failed. Oh well, my commitment to the Paleo diet is still going well. I am still training for upcoming races, but am finding it difficult to keep up with my weight lifting.

My weight has remained constant since the last post on March 1, so that is encouraging. I think it means that I am where my body wants to be. The stretched out skin from years of my weight fluctuating up and down is beginning to shrink, and I know this will take time and real effort on my part to make the extra time I need to do my strength training. I did slack off the last two weeks as I was tapering for the Bataan Memorial Death March marathon at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico (race report to follow). Now, it’s time to ramp things back up… Hog’s Hunt 50k is on April 16, and FANS 24 hour is on June 4-5.

My exercise activity since the last workout post on February 27: I have walked 61.4 miles, and done a mere 3 weight lifting workouts. I am not going to make any excuses for not getting the ST done, I promise to do better.

Promised

So, one of my friends asked me for a picture. I promised to post an updated picture as soon as my weight got below 150 pounds. Well, I am now 148, so I figured I would oblige.

Took this photo in the restroom mirror at work this morning. As you can plainly see, there is still a jelly roll over my jeans, but I KNOW in time, most of that will disappear too. As long as I stick with Paleo, that is. And do my best to find a way to do some weight lifting. I have started to do a little, but since I have the tendency to OVERDO everything... I must be careful not to injure my back.

That is all for now.

Great way to start the day!

So... I was off to Houston early this morning for my second training session with Ruth. She is an awesome, sweet young lady, and I think we compliment each other nicely. She is speedy, and I have endurance for the long haul.

We did some warm up drills and stretching before we started off to finish 6 miles in what we hoped to be an average pace somewhere around 12 minutes per mile. Wow, we held it for 5 miles, then did the last mile slowly for cool down. We followed the workout with lots of quality stretching and a stop at Starbucks on our way back to her house. I do my level best to maintain racewalking form during these workouts, but the soft knee is always going to be a problem for me, and I am OK with that. Just so Ruth does not pick up any bad habits from me, which I don't think she will. Her form is awesome, and I know she works on it all the time!

Oh, and, I tried a chin up on the bars at the park. I really was able to do 2!!! I have not even tried to do a pull up since I was in high school, so I am totally amazed I was able to get my chin above the bar!

Now that I have done back to back hard efforts, I don't feel obligated to any structured workout tomorrow. I have to work all day in the mattress store, so whatever happens, happens.

A day in the Life of a Paleo Newbie

Even though my diet has been almost totally Paleo since January 18, I still consider myself a newbie. I am really enjoying eating limitless amounts of delicious veggies! That is where my day began this morning. Funny how much butternut squash tastes like potatoes when you fry it until it is a little browned. I made an egg scramble with purple onions and butternut squash for breakfast and it was really good with organic (low sodium) salsa on top! Hubby even ate it!

I have seriously wanted to go to Georgia’s Market on I-10 in west Houston because they have in indoor farmers market. Most of their produce comes from local farmers. Raymond and I headed to Houston to check it out. I bought 3 large bags of assorted produce items and only spent $13. Everything looked fresh, so I stocked up. The funnies thing was the comparison between butternut squash on steroids that I buy at a regular grocery store and the locally grown miniature ones at Georgia’s. I guess commercially grown produce is force fed so much fertilizer that it grows way beyond what it should. I wonder if that means it is less nutritious.

On to a couple more stops. I actually found market fresh turkey patties at Wal-Mart. Will wonders never cease? When we exited Wal-Mart, I saw something really cool in the parking lot! Have any of you ever seen an Art Car?


I was not the only person who stopped to take a picture or two with the handy dandy cell phone camera!

We made it home and I piddled around putting the groceries away and got dressed for the workout I was supposed to be doing this morning. (I didn’t do it this morning because I woke up starving.) The plan was to push reasonably hard for 15 or 16 miles, trying to maintain a 14 minute per mile walking pace for most of the walk, and have fun doing it! Breakfast was at 8:30 am, and I didn’t eat again before my walk started at 2pm. I used my Hammer stuff (Perpetuem, Hammer Gel and Endurolytes) and took along a Lara Bar just in case I felt hungry. I only drink plain water… I get my Electrolytes from the Hammer stuff and all sports drinks are crap in my opinion, because they are loaded with HFCS.

The first couple of +/- 1.5 mile loops were warming up for a fun walk. I was feeling fine and both loops as I walked through the cemetery and back to the park, I saw this awesome mound of construction dirt and a bunch of kids playing on it. Boy did that bring back memories. The next time I came around, the kids were gone, so I ran up and back down that mound every time I passed it.

I felt so… shall I say… Primal? Here is a picture of the hill. I stopped for a couple of minutes to watch a hawk fly over head, searching for something… maybe a partner? I am not sure what their call means, but it was an amazing sight. I also had the chance to evangelize a little Paleo to a woman who admired my muscular appearance. I also bragged to a young girl admired my muscles about how hard I have to work to look like this! I just missed getting hit by a home run (maybe about 10 yards), and a ball exited the batting cage. Even though I throw like a girl, I tossed the balls back…

What a great workout! I maintained my pace of 13:58 minutes per mile for 14.5 miles! That is just a tad faster than 24 hour 100 mile pace and what I am working toward. Of course the HR got up there a few times, but that was when I was running up that hill like a damn fool! I strolled another .5 mile to get to 15 and cool down a little. The real goal here is to make 13:30 minute per mile walking pace an EZ pace. The way I feel today, that is going to happen!

Thanks for reading about my amazing day!