• September 21st, 2014
• Medford, Oregon
• The Rogue Run
• Sharon: 2:45:19
• Tim: 2:41:43

9 down 43 to go.

What I learned this week is (drum-roll please) don’t stay up after 11pm watching American Ninja Warrior (Europe won) if you have to get up at 5am the next morning to run a HM. Even without intellectually stimulating TV to keep me up late, I usually don’t sleep well before a race. At home our bed is a memory foam mattress over a futon, so hotel beds always feel weird to me. Also, I have this fear that Tim’s alarm won’t go off. Almost every night before a race I wake up in a panic thinking we have overslept, grope for my phone (usually waking Tim up in the process) only to find it is around 2am. It is always around 2am when this happens.

Before I launch into my race report I’m going to go off on a running topic tangent. From reading comments and talking to people, I get the feeling that most people think running a HM is harder than it is. If you can walk you can do a HM, in fact, many people walk them on purpose. So this week I’m going to give some quick running tips on how to safely run a first HM. I want to make clear that I in no way recommend running a HM every weekend as a way to get in shape. If you are fairly new to running then a HM a week would most likely lead to an injury or burnout. I needed to do something extreme to snap myself out of an escalating stasis caused by depression and boredom. I went into this project knowing that there was a healthier, safer way to get in shape. I also knew that it wasn’t going to happen. So this is a case of do as I say, not as I do. The best way I have found to teach running is the walk/run method. Most people start off trying to run too fast. When you start running you want to be running slow enough to hold a conversation. Run just a little faster then you walk. Run until you get really tired, then walk until you recover, then walk about 30 seconds longer, then run again and repeat. I recommend starting with 3 miles. It might take an hour or more. Once you can run 3 miles without stopping you can run a HM with the run/walk method, although I recommend doing a 5k then a 10k first just to get used to races. Make sure to increase your mileage slowly so you don’t get injured. Also avoid speed work until you have a solid base. When I started running I was always getting injured because I did way too much running too fast. You don’t need a lot of stuff for running, but you do need a good pair of running shoes. Go to your local running store and get fitted. If you tell them you are a new runner they should have you run on a treadmill to analyze your gait. Besides running shoes, I recommend a pair of running shorts and a tech shirt. Target has great shorts, shirts, and running bras in the active section. Do not buy your running shoes at target. Do your homework when signing up for a HM. You want a relatively flat course with frequent aid stations. Also, make sure the HM you choose is not raising money for a cause that will make you weep for shame later.

Onto my race report. At packet pickup they asked for ID and if you were over 21, on the way out you got a beer koozie and a PBR (damn hipsters). I took my koozie but, much to the apparent amazement and dismay of the koozie/ beer guy, I declined my PBR. Please koozie/beer guy, don’t take it so personally, when I was growing up every night my mom would drink PBR and one of my goals in life is not to turn into my mother. Plus PBR tastes like toilet water. OK, watered down toilet water. What I really said was, “no thanks”, but that is what I meant. Tim left his PBR in the refrigerator in the hotel.

You know what’s fattening, being married. After packet pickup we found a pizza place in downtown Medford. The pizza sizes went from 10 to 14 inch. I thought the 10 inch would be plenty but Tim said he was hungry and got the 14 inch. Somehow I managed to forget that just because Tim orders a large pizza that doesn’t mean I have to eat half of it. More brilliant insight into how a person can gain over 40 pounds in a year. My brain seems to turn off in the presence of food and I eat until my plate is empty. Well, not all food. I couldn’t finish my brussel sprouts last week. We checked out our goody bags over lunch. I like it that there are no advertising logos on the the T-Shirt. It makes it more wearable. Besides the usual chap-stick, sunscreen, bars, and ads we got sunglasses. That’s a first.

Much of this course was run along Bear Creek. It was pretty. Tim ran with me for over a mile before he took off. I later found out that he had a problem with his a-fib acting up and only came in minutes before me. This is the first time since Eugene (HM#1) that Tim has had a problem with his heart while running. The course was on an asphalt bike path the entire way so it was impossible to get lost. The only downside to the course was a stretch of bike path that ran along the freeway. The view to the left was beautiful but on the right I could see trucks and cars and smell their exhaust. At least we weren’t running on the freeway like in Troutdale. It wasn’t the best looking section but I wasn’t afraid of being run over.

This was a hard race for me. I got about 4 hours of sleep Saturday night so I was tired. It didn’t help that I was still queasy from overeating pizza. Also it was humid. I’m from Tucson so to me humidity is like breathing soup and my asthma hates it. I was running so slow that I talked to a woman who was power walking for almost 3 miles. Only about 5 miles into this race I felt the sting of chafing on my right underarm, again. I got it bandaged up twice because the band-aid fell off the first time. The second time I has to run awhile before finding someone with a band-aid. Next week I will wrap it before I run. I will spare you the pictures but if you really want to see my chafing, it looks exactly like the picture in the Albany race report. If anyone has any anti-chafing advice other than – avoid loose clothing or use Bodyglide, I would love to hear it. Around mile 11 they had a Table of Temptation. I only had a shot of red wine but Tim had a shot of Fireball, a shot of beer and 3 doughnut holes! I would have puked. Just the shot of wine turned my stomach sour. Are you ready for more brilliant running advise? Don’t drink and run. I did my usual sprint to the finish line and almost passed out. I hate humidity. Because of my asthma I always look and sound worse than I am at the end of a race. A medical volunteer offered me a chair in the shade. Since I have gained weight I overheat faster than I ever have before. I used to overheat in Tucson all the time but that was because unless it was over 100°, I ran. After the race we talked to an interesting couple. She was doing a marathon in every state and this race was his first HM. We have met some fascinating people on this adventure. This race also had a free beer at the finish. It seems like breweries sponsoring races is becoming a thing. While hanging out after the race and drinking a beer I saw a woman in a T-Shirt that said, “Slow Runners Make Other Runners Look Fast – Your Welcome”. I want one!

Cons

• Parking Chaos at the packet pickup
• Ran out of water at the 7 mile aid station with over 100 people still on the course
• Running next to a freeway

Pros

• T-Shirt with no sponsor names on it
• Asphalt bike path – no way to get lost
• River and forest views
• Temptation aid station
• Chocolate Milk
• Free large beer (I could only drink half) from Deschutes Brewery
• Great, Friendly volunteers
• Good after race party vibe

This was one of the smoothest, well organized HM we have ever done. The only small glitch was that an aid station ran out of water. Even then, they had Gatoraid and the next aid station had water. I think this would be a perfect beginner or first HM. The path was straightforward, plenty of aid stations with helpful volunteers, nice scenery, and a good party. This race had about 500 people, making it large enough that you will never be running alone but small enough to feel friendly in a more personal way. A lot of thought was put into this race. Now if they could only figure out how to get rid of humidity.

Finishers with beer.