Carlsbad

Carlsbad was a blast!
There was a pre-race pasta feed Saturday night for those of us running for Insulindependence. This was at Nate and Peter's house. They're the core of Insulindependence.
Among others, I met Ryan, the kid in the first frame of this video.
A lot of the people there had been to a party Friday night for all of the charities involved in the race. Bill Carlson, one of my Triabetes team members, the first insulin-dependent diabetic to complete an Ironman, was one of the Heroes of the Marathon, an honored guest at that dinner.
Then they had a surfing event at the beach Saturday morning that I arrived too late to enjoy. Then Peter worked at the Expo all day while Nate worked on the pasta feed.
So anyway, I picked up my number at the expo, was there for about an hour, and went over to Insulindepence HQ for pasta.
That went until everyone had finally decided we should get some rest. Then we got up at 4 AM to go to the race.
I started out running with Peter Nerothin, who was going for 3:30, a PR for him, but certainly within his reach.
Peter's pre-race blood sugar was 202, I think, and mine was 192.
I told him there was no way I could run his pace for the whole race. His friend, Jason, who ran a 3:14 in Chicago, was going to stick with him through the race. Both Peter and Jason had run the Disney World Marathon two weeks before, but not racing all out, as part of a contingent from CWD, Children with Diabetes.
After three miles I said something that Peter said I had to put in my blog, so here it is:
"I think my legs just figured it out. They're starting to say, 'Not again!'"
I ran with Jason and Peter past the 7 mile mark, then said "Adios" at the bottom of a big hill. This race is all rolling hills... some big, some steep, throughout the course.
I still managed to keep up a fair pace. I only slowed way down after about 20 miles. I had set myself this goal of finishing in under 4 hours, and it was never in doubt. I didn't have to push.
The weather was perfect all day, overcast, but never too cold. Some wind, but seldom so much that I felt I was fighting it.
At around 22 miles, I was starting to drag. That can happen, your energy can dip, especially 22 miles into your second marathon in 8 days.
So I checked by blood sugar for the first time in the race. It was 143, and that little sense of success at being close to target was enough to encourage me to pick it up a bit. Of course, knowing that diabetes wasn't going to give me an excuse to wimp out was also motivating.
The four hour pace group finally caught up with me at mile 25, and they were talking about the fact that they were on a pace to finish 7 minutes ahead of schedule. So I knew if I just kept them in sight, I'd be fine. I let them go and just kept chugging along.
Then I saw the two pace group leaders again about the same time I saw the sign for 26 miles, and I thought, "I can catch them." So I did. I had a decent kick.
I was a little over 3:57 gun time, and 3:56:25 chip time.
My blood sugar in the post-race marathoners area was 132. It was a good day for blood sugar management.
When Peter and I finally got back to Insulindependence headquarters, the post-race party was already well underway, fajitas and beer.
It's amazing to me that I felt like it was just a go-go-go weekend, but I missed all of the events prior to Saturday afternoon.

So now I've knocked out 46 marathons, and I'm thinking I should do number 47 on Saturday, the Arizona Road Racers Desert Classic Marathon in Surprise.
I'm trying to keep costs under control. This is a cheap, local race. If I skip it, there isn't another one I can do as inexpensively.
I can't expect to do very well at the Desert Classic, but at least it isn't as tough a course as Carlsbad. With any luck, I may be able to run it faster. That will be my objective, beat 3:56.
I'll hold off on doing the Bataan Death March Marathon again until next year.
Numbers 48 and 49 will be Lost Dutchman and Whiskey Row.

Then Ironman Arizona will be #50.

Marathons 45 and 46

Well, as Kevin mentioned in his blog, we both ran the Rock 'N' Roll Arizona Marathon last Sunday.
My time for the marathon would have been fairly easy to predict, since I was one of two pacers leading the 4:15 marathon group. Jennifer and I finished in 4:14:02, running a fairly consistent pace throughout.
Jennifer used to be my most frequent training partner, but we haven't run together that much recently. When we met a few years ago, we were pretty close to the same speed, but she keeps getting faster, and I keep getting older.
This was my 45th lifetime official marathon. It wasn't a difficult marathon for me, but the lack of training due to colds and laziness over the holidays made it harder than it had to be.
This leaves me in pretty bad shape going into this weekend, when I'll be running the Carlsbad Marathon, my 46th marathon, in support of Insulindependence. I have no great ambitions for this marathon, but I'd like to break four hours.
Then I don't have another marathon to run until my 47th, the Lost Dutchman Marathon, February 15.
Of course, I can't expect to run Lost Dutchman any faster than RNRAZ or Carlsbad, because I'm going to run the Pemberton Trail 50K the day before.
This leaves me two chances, my 48th and 49th lifetime marathons, to run a Boston qualifying time (3:35) before Ironman Arizona with Triabetes in November.
But the most attractive marathons to me, in terms of convenience and adventure, are the Bataan Death March Marathon and the Whiskey Row Marathon.
They are both very tough.
It doesn't look good for qualifying for Boston this year.

Running with the Big Dogs

I hardly ever take my dogs running with me. I have two big dogs, Rusty and Penny, and they love to run. I feel guilty about not taking them with me when I go out. (And they make it clear to me that they're disappointed in me.)
But taking them with me is a drag. They want to stop and sniff this and that, mark here and there, take a dump, leap at a cat, yank on the leash and pull me along, or drag me backwards.
Anyway, I took them on a run last week and went 3 miles in 45 minutes. It was a little tedious and a good example of why I don't run with them. But I felt like they had done all right and I should take them out more often. Maybe that was because I had just done a treadmill run the day before, and anything is better than that.
So I took my dogs out again last night. I didn't feel like we were doing anything different. After we were running for a while, Penny, the older and heavier dog, started to drag and indicate that she was tired. I thought I had better start thinking about getting home. For the first time I looked at my Garmin to see what my mileage was, and we had gone 3.5 miles in 33 minutes!
By the time we got home, we had gone 4.5 miles in 45 minutes! We went 50% farther in the same amount of time! These dogs could do OK if I ran with them more often. I was proud of them.

Need More Diabetic Runners

Well, I haven't posted anything on this blog since December 20. You would think I didn't have anything to say. However, the fact is I have been telling myself over and over again, "You should write about this on your blog."
I ran a 30K race on December 21st. You'd think that was worth a post wouldn't you? Well, it was.
Life has just been rushing along so quickly, I feel like I can hardly keep up with all the things I have to do.
Lots of other little things have come up, and maybe I'll write about them later, but here's the reason I just have to write something today:

As you may know, Insulindependence has an all type 1 diabetics team running in the Ragnar Relay Del Sol on February 27th and 28th. This is a twelve runner relay covering 194.3 miles from Prescott to Mesa, Arizona, with each runner covering from 10 to 18 miles divided into three sections.
If you're familiar with multi-day relays like Hood to Coast, Reach the Beach, or one of the other Ragnar events, this is the same sort of thing.
Well, we've lost a few runners due to injuries and other commitments, and we need more type 1 diabetic runners to fill out the team. If you're interested in this adventure, and you think you could run about 5 miles 3 times within a period of about 20 hours, please drop me a line at jpnairn at gmail dot com.
We are not an especially competitive team. We are not in this to win the event. The main objective is to raise awareness about diabetes and exercise, and to bring together some like-minded diabetic athletes... to have a blast.

Sick of being sick

Thursday night I went for the longest run I've done in probably a month. I was the regular Thursday night group run from the local running store, Sole Sports. There were close to a dozen of us, and it seemed like almost everyone wanted to go on the long route, 8 miles.
Lately, if I've shown up at all, I only ran 4 or 5 miles. It's cold and wet out, and I've had this horrible bronchitis that is only now almost gone, after more than a month.
But I was feeling good and I was eager to start getting some more mileage in, so I decided to go the distance.
You know why men are way better sprinters than women? Testosterone.
You know why women fare better against men in longer distances? Testosterone.
If you go on informal group fun runs, you know how it is. The women know the purpose of these runs. They trot along, chatting and catching up on the news in each others' lives. The guys start out easy, but if one pulls ahead, the others will keep up. It can very easily become a competitive thing. In the last mile, they can all just become silly little boys trying to outsprint each other.
Well, a mile into our run on that night we were all still in a group, when suddenly a guy not in our group came running up from behind, said, "Excuse me." and went chugging by.
I don't know what got into me. I set off on his heels. I tucked in right behind him, running as silently as I could, controlling my breathing. He wasn't going much faster than we were, and he was already breathing hard. I knew he couldn't be going far.
Hey, if the guy who passed last Thursday is reading this, please don't take offense. You're a good runner.
So I kept with him to his turnaround point, about a mile up. He noticed me, and we talked a little. He was out for four miles. He does 10 on his longest runs. I felt a little ashamed at not being able to just let him pass.
But you know why I didn't? Testosterone.
So anyway, when I finally got back to the store, I was feeling a little cold and my nose was running. The next morning my throat was sore. This being sick is getting old.

Amazing

Last week I finally went to see an eye doctor. I was a couple of years overdue, which is ill-advised for someone who has been diabetic as long as I have, about 35 years.
But I finally got in there, got my eyesight checked out, then had my pupils dilated and my retinas scanned for signs of diabetic retinopathy. This concern about retinopathy is why I should be seeing an eye doctor every six months or so.
However, the doctor, after using a machine that looked like a microscope to stare into my dilated pupils with bright light in a darkened room, from every angle, for what seemed like an hour, just said, "Amazing..." and turned and started to make notes in my chart.
He said my retinas aren't perfect, but he was expecting to see a lot more damage than he saw. He said it was really quite amazing.
He asked me if I kept tight control of my blood sugar, and when I hesitated, he added, "... or are you just lucky?"
Well, I'm lucky that I've had this hobby of running all of my life. That has probably helped. Many years ago I had an endo who prescribed an ACE inhibitor as a precaution. I took that for a couple of years, and it probably helped. I have also taken pycnogenol, and that may have something to do with it.
And I'm probably just lucky.
But the other part of the eye exam didn't go so well. For the first time in my life I'm wearing bifocals. I put off getting glasses for as long as I could. My wife suspects that it's taken me this long to see an eye doctor because I was afraid of getting glasses.
If that's true, then I'm sticking with a claim of ignorance. It was entirely subconscious.
My doctor tells me I could probably pass a driving test without glasses, but maybe not.
So the next time you see me, please don't call me four eyes.

Approaching 50

On March 13, 2009, I will be 50, half a century old. Purely by coincidence, I'm also approaching another milestone. I have run 47 marathons and ultramarathons. I could end up with 55 by my 50th birthday.
Here are some of the events that could get me there:

1/18/09 Rock 'N' Roll AZ Marathon - free because I run it as a pace group leader

1/24/09 Diamond Valley Lake Marathon
1/25/09 Carlsbad Marathon - raising money for Insulindependence

1/31/09 Desert Classic Marathon - $45

2/7/09 Sedona Marathon

2/14/09 Pemberton Trail 50K - $50
2/15/09 Lost Dutchman Marathon - $55

3/7/09 Old Pueblo 50 Mile

A couple of those events will probably drop off of my schedule. I'm not really committed to running the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon, for instance.
(You might notice my preference for events within driving distance and with low registration fees. I'm trying to maintain my serious endurance racing habit on a tight budget.)
Those are marathons AND ultras, though. However many of those events I run, I will make sure I still have only 49 total 26.2 mile marathons, because I want the Ironman Arizona finish in November to be my 50th marathon. That will not be a coincidence.