June 6, 2010 – San Diego Rock n’ Roll Marathon
Good afternoon friends!
Well, it is official. Five hours, 26.2 miles, six pounds lost, and my buddies Mark Estrada, Patrick Moneda and I crossed the finish line to complete the 2010 Rock n’ Roll Marathon. But the journey did not begin so smoothly…
As you know, I had injured my back just days before the marathon and was having difficulty standing, much less walking or even running. It certainly concerned me and I wondered if I would be able to complete a challenge my friends and I set out to complete over six months ago. More insult to injury, I ended up getting a full blown cold two days before the Sunday race. Certainly, by this point, I came to realize that there were a lot of signs telling me that I shouldn’t have shown up.
So I played it by ear, and said that I’d see how I felt by Saturday, June 5th. Showed up to the Health and Fitness Expo with fellow runners Estrada, Mark Joya, Reynan as well as Pat and my cousin Roland, and luckily for me, found a booth giving away free samples of Salonpas (medicated heat pads) and providing free back and leg massages, so that certainly helped ease the pain. Also had a chance to get a picture of this great sign. Love it.
Come race day, I was still in quite a bit of pain and snot was coming out of my nose every other minute, but I promised myself that if I was anywhere close to 70%, there wasn’t anything that was going to stop me from running on Sunday. After the National Anthem, the race was off, and the Kenyans and professional runners took off (I later discovered that the winner of the Rock n’ Roll this year did it in just over two hours, which is ridiculous).
Its amazing what adrenaline can do. Once our corral (wave of runners) got going, I felt the usual aches and pains when my body is resisting my intention to make it run. Once I started hitting my stride, its almost as if the back pain, the illness, and soreness in my hips was non-existent and we started pushing forward on a great pace at just about a 9:30 – 9:45 mile heading through the 13 mile mark. One thing of note is that we were flying down the 163 heading down the hill northbound to Friars Road, which certainly cut out a lot of time off the clock.
Fans were cheering, gatorade spilling and some people were starting to hit the wall come mile 20. Its funny when you watch the news and get footage of marathons and you typically see the normal footage of waves of runners all dressed with their running clothes and chest numbers seemingly moving in a successive movement in the same direction. But what you don’t see is all of the strange behaviors the camera can’t show you when you’re in the moment running it with the rest of these crazed hooligans.
Along the way, I am certain I’ve seen it all. People vomiting on the side of the road, 
urinating on the other, taking a drink of water, spilling over their head and throwing it to their right only to hit another runner, and even a runner who decided to go #2 while she was running. Yeah, seriously. As for me and my teammates, we had a fun moment when we got to the halfway marker and I laughed at my buddy Mark and pointed at his Challenged Athletes Foundation shirt as he noticed that he had a blood spot coming off of his chest from nipple abrasion. He then laughed at me in return as it happened to me. Those dang bloody nipples, why didn’t anyone ever tell me about this? Oh wait, ultramarathoner and fellow QMDC teammate Alex Hamlow already warned me, but I seem to have forgotten! We couldn’t just help but laugh at one another because none of us felt it happening. Must be the adrenaline.
So there we were, chugging away at mile 20, keeping a decent pace until about mile 22 when the dreaded WALL came. All of the back pain, illness, hip and calf pain for me and quad pain for Pat came rushing back full steam and forced us to have to walk for about three miles while we sent Mark headed for the finish line. After running 22 miles, it was amazing how far 3 miles felt, it was almost like walking through quicksand or wading through shallow water. And we weren’t alone. Numbers of runners were slowing at the Fiesta Island turnaround point, and a couple poor runners were being tended to on the sidelines by medical staff.
Pat and I decided that we would walk it out until about mile 25, stretch, and then dig deep to finish hard. And we certainly did. There’s nothing like the rush of energy you get from the crowd, the cheers and the whistles, the sight of family at the finish line. Becky was there, screaming and yelling for me to finish and the finish line is dead in sight. When marathon training, its one of those moments you envision after every run, how it would feel to finally make it to the end, and finish a race that you’ve been training six months to complete.
Runner by runner, finisher by finisher, there we were amongst them, hands raised in the air as we crossed the finish line — an accomplishment of a lifetime and huge invisible check off a personal list.
Take care friends, keep on running and stay tuned for the June 2010 update when I share our adventures from our trip to Japan!
-BB
May 2010 – Return of the QMDC Training Rides and a Marathon Training Setback…
Hello Friends!
Summer’s here, and while the month of May brings us a change of weather, a start to the Major League Baseball season (way to go Padres!) and the end of American Idol, what May means for me is the final preparations for the Rock n’ Roll Marathon on June 6th. My training buds Mark and Pat have put me through the most rigorous of training regimens and we worked our way from the half marathon mileage of 13.1 miles all the way to 22 miles within six months and are primed and ready for the big 26.2 mile challenge ahead. Except for one thing. INJURY. But we’ll get back to that in a sec.
As many of you know, much of the productivity that comes from endurance sports comes from not only being out there on your bike, pedaling away for eight hours straight, or running for four hours, but from careful preparation and cross training. While many folks just focus their training towards one discipline, lets say running, their entire focus is to improve their leg strength and cardiovascular capacity to prepare themselves for a foot race. Others who train for a cycling event, will spend time on trainers, in the gym working their legs and core, and do interval hill climbing or sprints to focus on their quads.
For me, I’m training for both. With the marathon coming up around the corner and the return of the Challenged Athletes Foundation’s Qualcomm Million Dollar Challenge, I have to spend equal amounts of time putting in mileage on foot and on my bike in order to keep my endurance and leg strength for both at as high a level as I can. For preparation purposes, that means training 5-6 days per week, with time spent running, cycling, weight lifting and more running and cycling.
Which brings us to the big event in October, the 2010 QMDC – another wonderful trip from San Francisco to San Diego in October of this year. We have a fantastic turnout of fundraisers and riders this year with a number of familiar friends and return veterans from last year, including many of my fellow XX1090 Scott & BR 2009 Radio Riders, and a great amount of new faces as well! Adam Beck, last year’s 2009 Scott & BR Champ has joined the 2008 Champ Mike Henderson to train the brand new 2010 Scott & BR Riders for their upcoming challenge ahead. Seeing this new batch of contestants brings me back to last year when I was in the radio contest, and all of the excitement, anxiety and fun that it brought to me. However, I sure am glad I’m no longer on a hot seat and wondering if I’m gonna make the next cut. It’ll be fun to see how this year’s drama unfolds.
This year also welcomes new ride leaders and Head Coach as well, as Pat Jak from Fitness Quest (well known for training the likes of Drew Brees
and LaDainian Tomlinson) has taken the helm. After last year’s Fitness Quest training day, Pat Jak gave us all excellent tips for endurance athletes on weight lifting techniques we can use to get stronger and prevent injury. In fact, over the last year, I’ve taken his advice and added two days of weight training and believe that it’s certainly helped me get faster on both my feet and my bike. At least I believe I’m faster, and that’s half the battle:)
One thing of note from the first training ride for the QMDC is that I somehow found myself in Group One, riding with the super fast studs (like my bud Don Parker pictured here) at a pace between 22-24 mph. I’d like to note that this was not my intention to start out in Group One, as it was quite a jump from working with the 16-18 mph Group Three all last year. But, it turns out that Radio Joe Weickgenant, top seven finisher in last year’s contest and roommate of mine down the coast last year, along with ultra fast Chance Whitaker are the Group One Ride leaders, and Joe kindly requested (by pulling me by my jersey), to ride in his group. I’ll tell you what, I had a heck of a time. There’s absolutely nothing like throwing down the pedals as fast and as hard as you can to hold onto someone’s wheel, race up hills faster than you have before, and having a big smile while doing it. I certainly enjoyed riding with the group, and I hope that I can continue to ride with these speedsters for weeks to come. Was I dropped a couple of times? Absolutely, but Chance and Joe came back to reel me back in, and even when I wanted to slow down, they kindly encouraged me (via yelling and name calling) that the only way I’m going to improve is to push my limits.
Which brings me back full circle to my current dilemma. With a week to go before the RnR Marathon, I headed down to the gym for my Tuesday leg routine, and while doing squats, I came up funny and felt a sharp pain in my lower back which led to back spasms. I knew it right when it happened and said to myself, “OH FUDGE” (or words to that effect) and over the last two days, I’ve been in a pretty good amount of pain and can’t hardly stand, much less run.
But we’re not throwing in the towel yet my friends. I’ve been rehabbing it, and with great advice from my cousin Roland (a physical therapist and marathoner) and Alex Hamlow (my favorite ultramarathoner), I’ve iced, heated, massaged, stretched and rested my way back to about 60% mobility, so I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll be at about 80% come Sunday, so I can complete the challenge that my teammates and I set out to accomplish over half a year ago.
Stay tuned for next month’s update to see if I complete my 26.2 mile journey on Sunday and until then, if you’d like to make a donation to the Challenged Athletes Foundation and support me in my upcoming quest for the Qualcomm Million Dollar Challenge in October, you can click on the green ribbon to the right or check out my fundraising page at:
http://mdcalumni2010.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=342248&supId=258041656
Take care everyone and keep on riding!
-BB