A moment of silence, please

My shin splints are back...which means it's time to trade in my old faithful running shoes for a new pair. 

I got these shoes back in August, just before I got into the heavy duty training for Columbus. I've run in many different brands of shoes - Asics, New Balance, Brooks, Nike (not since Jr. High track), etc. and I had never found a pair that I've loved enough to purchase twice. Until these. I had really bad shin splints when I was shopping and the guy at the Running Spot recommended the Asics Gel Kayano 14's. After recovering from the initial sticker shock, I decided my legs were worth the investment and bit the bullet. Best decision ever. These are by far the best, most comfortable running shoes I've run in. They kept me injury free (well, major injury free) through the last two months of my marathon training AND they lasted for more than four months.

Some of the milestones (pun intended) that these shoes survived:

- My first 18, 20, and 22-miler training runs + every other run I've written about to date in this blog.

- The Banco Popular Chicago Half Marathon. It rained the entire 13.1 miles, but I had a blast anyway and I beat my Pig time by 30 seconds. :-)

- A really big blister (I know. Gross.) - there used to be blood on the right shoe but it washed off during the Chicago Half...

- The Nationwide Better Health Columbus Marathon (awesome name). First marathon and probably one of the biggest highlights of 2008 in general for me.

I could go on but I won't. The point is that I love these shoes and never plan on throwing them away because they are big pieces of my running history. (I have one other pair of shoes saved, which are the shoes I wore when I first starting running/racing again three years ago). 

So today, for the first time ever, I walked into the Running Spot, handed them my old shoes and said "I'll take another pair of these, please."

Run, drink, and be merry

Last night was the infamous Running Spot “Holiday Hash Run.” The plan for the evening involved a 6-mile route with stops at 6 (or 7, for the daring) local bars. I’ve enjoyed plenty of alcohol AFTER my workouts but I had never actually drank DURING a workout – until last night.

Adding to the “challenge” of our pub run was the fact that it had snowed all day and it was still snowing/freezing raining when we set out for the first bar. The sidewalks were a mess so we were running in the street, which was kind of bad because the street was full of angry drivers and black ice.

However, despite the weather, the run was fantastic! The group that showed up was super fun and I got to run with some cool new people. The bar-by-bar recap goes something like this (I think)…

Bar 1 – Teller’s – optional (I didn’t stop here)

Bar 2 – RP McMurphy’s OR The Establishment aka the “E”
Since I skipped Teller’s, RP’s was technically my first bar. A relatively large group of runners crammed into what is a relatively small bar, all shoving to get their beer orders in first.

Having done a few pub crawls in the past, I knew I needed to drink shots vs. full beers if I wanted to keep up with everyone (I can’t drink bunches of beer fast). So, what shot goes best with running? Irish car bombs of course! They’re about the healthiest things you can get, in my opinion. Guinness is low carb, the Bailey’s has protein, and Irish whisky is just good for you in general.

Runners are kind of a competitive bunch (duh), so when the guy next to me also ordered a car bomb, it became clear that we should race. I lost, badly, but decided I needed a rematch at the next bar…which brings us to…

Bar 3 – The Oaks
I was one of the first runners to get here so I had already ordered and chugged my shot (I lost. Again.) by the time the place started filling up. Probably good because I managed to break my glass (I have a bad habit of slamming my glass down to signify the finish). I realized at this point that I might have a buzz…

Bar 4 – Habits
Habits is only about 200 yards away from The Oaks, so we sprinted there (great idea in the snow). I lost another car bomb race and noticed that none of us were bothering to turn off our flashing lights anymore. In addition to the regular flashing lights, some people were wearing flashing Christmas lights. I’m sure we were an epileptic’s worst nightmare. (Actually, we were probably a lot of people’s worst nightmare, given that we weren’t so fresh smelling and were getting progressively louder.)

Bar 5 – The Pub
I was a little slow getting to this bar but I have such good friends that by the time I arrived, a car bomb was already waiting for me. This was drink #4, and I feel obligated to mention that I’ve never had more than three car bombs in one night. Also, I didn’t have any dinner…maybe that’s why I kept losing the chug race…We tried to order water but to no avail.

Bar 6 – O’Bryon’s
O’Bryon’s is about a mile from The Pub, which is a long way to run after a few drinks and it was mostly uphill, so I decided to run/walk this part of the route. I don’t remember a lot about this last bar except that I lost the final car bomb race and moved on to Blue Moon. Everyone, myself included, was pretty merry by this point. Thank goodness no one had a camera.

Overall the run was by far the most fun I have had with this group. Alcohol played a factor of course, but it was just awesome to hang out and relax with everyone versus putting ourselves through a masochistic training run like normal. Plus, I got to see my half marathon coach from last Spring as well as the girl who ran with me from mile 14-18 at Columbus. It was great to finally thank her in person for her support!

Sleepyhead...

...aka me this morning (and also the name of a really good song). My Running Spot group still meets at 8:30 am on Saturday mornings (our winter meeting time) but I have been too lazy to get out of bed and join them. I usually run later in the day most Saturdays, but when I woke up at 9 am I decided that I would take today off. However, I then fell back asleep and woke up an hour later, inexplicably grouchy, with the urge to run the Lunken bike path. Normally you can’t pay me to do Lunken (boring!), but whatever. Off I went to run in a circle around an airport.

I’m so glad I did.

For the first few miles, the trail was all mine. The sun was shining and the long, straight stretches of pavement that usually annoy me actually looked…inviting. The grass and bushes that surround the trail were all dead and brown, but when I looked closely, all the bushes were full of bright red berries. And, there were bunches of red cardinals hopping around in the grass looking for breakfast. I’m used to running through high-traffic, yuppie-infested Hyde Park and I was really excited to see a bit of nature this morning. The Costa Rican rain forest it wasn’t, but I’ll take what I can get. :-)

Needless to say I felt much happier after my un-planned 5-miler. Running really IS cheaper than therapy. (Sadly I have a shirt that says that. And I actually wear it.)

Holiday in Lights Run

This past Tuesday was the annual Cincinnati Running Club “Holiday in Lights” Run. I’ve never run with this crew before, so I was looking forward to see how one of their runs went. I met up with some of my training buddies at the Running Spot and we ran through the rain over to Williams Y (route start) together. (These are the same training buddies I could barely keep up with this summer. Guess what? I can still barely keep up with them. My fitness plan of drink more, run less isn’t paying off so well.)

Anywho. We got to the Y and things were a bit…disorganized. About 50 runners were wandering aimlessly, some of them with jingle bells around their necks. Was kind of funny.


The crew, pre-run

The group finally meandered outside and we took off. Except no one really knew where we were going. :-) And the people that are actually in the running club must do a 6:30 minute mile or something because they disappeared pretty quickly. You could hear the sound of their jingle bells for a while, but then that disappeared too.

I hung with the Running Spot group and we managed to figure out the route…sort of. We knew what the “points of interest” were supposed to be so we just ran towards those. The first place was the manger scene in Eden Park, which featured live animals. I don’t often see sheep when I run, so this was actually pretty neat. (Although I did see a woman walking two ponies on one of my runs last weekend. Random.)


Baa

We then ran up to Mt. Adams where we picked up some other Running Spot people pondering which way to go. The next point on the route was Fountain Square, meaning we needed to find a way downtown. We picked the closest street (Monastery) and enjoyed a nice mile or so of downhill on our way to the city. More Christmas (yes I still call it Christmas) lights were on 4th street, but the best ones were at the Square. The skating rink was all lit up, Elvis Christmas carols were playing, and a gaggle of runners was waiting for us by the fountain for a group photo. If that doesn’t put you in the holiday spirit, then you’re a Grinch. :-)

After our photo, the route took us through…Tower Place mall. I’m sure the sight of us running through the revolving doors one by one and trotting through the first floor of the mall was somewhat of a spectacle to the people who were trying to shop. We all looked like drowned rats from running around in the rain (at least it was 55 degrees out).


Wet runners (I'm the geek in a grass-green track jacket, front row)

Our next point was the train display at the CG&E building. My friend and I were so inspired that we busted into a really bad rendition of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. A few of the other runners joined in and sang backup. And a few of them glared at us, ha, ha.

Rather than running back up Monastery Street (the climb is almost vertical – no thank you), we opted for Gilbert Avenue (which is one of the notorious hills in the Pig) thinking it would be an easier hill since it’s gradual. Ha! We ended up adding about a mile extra onto our route thanks to our laziness. And it’s still a heck of a climb, so by the time we hit Eden Park again, I was completely out of steam. Several miles later we finally made it back to the Running Spot. There was a happy hour afterwards but the idea of beer after running Gilbert made me want to yak. I barely had the energy to shower when I got home and then spent the rest of the evening huddled in a blanket on my friend’s floor sipping Gatorade while everyone else drank margaritas. I’m so hardcore.

Final distance? 9.8 miles! No wonder I felt like crap. I haven’t run more than 6 miles in almost a month…

Snow Day!

Yesterday I woke up to find two inches of snow on the ground. This was a bit of a surprise since the forecast predicted “flurries”. And the surprise attack meant we missed out on the usual warnings: OMG-the-white-death-is-coming-stock-up-on-canned-goods. (In Cincinnati, the threat of snow, any amount, really throws our local news teams into a delighted panic.)

However, I actually like the snow and was kind of looking forward to running in it. Winter running is interesting to me in general because it’s always a game as to what I should wear. These are the guidelines I try to follow:

45 degrees: Shorts and a long-sleeved shirt

30-44 degrees: Pants and a turtleneck.

25-29 degrees: Pants, t-shirt, jacket, gloves, headband.

10-24 degrees: Tights, pants, long-sleeved t-shirt, jacket (preferably with built in mittens), gloves, headband.

9 degrees or below: Not sure that I’ve ever run in anything below 9 degrees, but our coach last year for the Flying Pig recommended putting Body Glide on any exposed skin.

I think it’s funny when people ask if I keep running outside during the winter. First of all, Cincinnati does NOT get that cold nor do we get a ton of snow (for the most part). Second, people ski/snowboard in this stuff all the time and no one looks at them like they have three heads. Why is running any different??

I really enjoyed my jaunt through the “white death” yesterday. Was good to get outside and play…maybe next time I’ll make a snow angel in someone’s yard.