The Road to Perdition... and Glory!!

So it's done. The Marathon, I mean. All the days of planning, exchanging tips, fantasizing about crossing the finish line... and yeah, it's happened.

I ran my first half marathon today in 2 hours and 8 minutes for the 13.1 miles. We all finished... and it was every bit as good as we'd imagined. The whole package, the pain included.

Vikas breezed through his full in 4 hrs 17 mins, Lubdha battled her busted knees to do it in 2 hrs 33 and Rohan beat cramps and all the agony to finish the whole 26.2 at 5 hrs 14. Zoheb took 2 and 43 for the half. I am so proud of these guys. And am so glad I made some awesome friends!!!

Details will follow, but Rohan's words keep resounding, "There are few things I have deserved as much as this Finisher's medal..."

Each of us fought everything from ITBS to cramps to Runners' knee on sheer grit. Am just glad we all made it through! :)

Some ITBS resources

BTW, Vikas has unearthed some good ITBS and running related links. I will be the cuckoo in the crow's nest and just link to his blog :-D here. See the entry for Nov. 20.

Knee-aring the marathon!

I went to the doctor today. Actually! I went weak in the knees... pardon the pun. But i started fearing the shadow that looms on my marathon effort. And the oncoming long weekend, which magnified my fears. What if it gets worse? And then somebody tells me I cant attempt to run? Bascially, I wanted someone to tell me, so I could tell other who ask me not to run, that I can legally run. And it's happened.

For one, I had a helluva time in getting an appointment. Finally got one at the Overlake Medical Center this morning. Dr. Chi was great to talk to, having been a runner himself. He confirmed it is ITBS. And showed me a number of aggressive stretches. He says I should be good to run on Sunday, but he assures me of the pain later. Here are a few tips for those attempting my insanity -
1) ITBS is not deadly unless you really totally ignore it in the initial stages. But it can inhibit your running for several years if it's allowed to get out of hand.
2) It almost never requires surgery and seldom requires steroid shots to pamper the muscle.
3) It is a common runners' nightmare. And it happens to runners whose mind runs the training track faster than their muscles can support. The culprit is overtraining and overuse.
4) All stretches that cause the hip and buttock muscles to stretch will help relieve ITBS
5) It is OK to take ibuprofen before the run, drink a lot of water (to prevent excess ibuprofen concentration hampering the kidneys) and take it again after the run. But it needs to be flushed out of the system so needs a lot of hydration.
6) It REALLY is imperative to stretch and ice (for at least 20 minutes) after the run.

As for me, I am preparing myself to have a very tough next week. I hope I dont have to stop at all during the run, and can instead relax my knees later. But having been assured that the damage will not be long term, I feel more confident about doing it... well... here comes raceday. Rather, raceday, here I come. :)

The hard part of the marathon training

I hadnt expected to be so upset about my knee hurting. Right now, I feel wronged. I can imagine how Vikas had felt the day he had to stop at 7 miles when he was all geared up for 20.
Well, I just have to deal with it. But I just wish, and still hope, that I can run my best on the day of the marathon. I dont want to just finish it, I want to have the chance to test myself. Not to have an excuse for not having done well enough, but to have been able to be out there with all the chance I have to earn a good timing.

I am doing my stretches, taking Ibuprofen, iceing my knee, more importantly, not running. It is very tempting to try it and see whether it hurts. But I cant afford to. And the $#& thing still hurts. (Pardon the '$#&', but it's not nice to keep it bottled up. Maybe it affects the ITB if I dont vent it out ;-)).

I know one thing. I am going to finish that marathon even if I have to crawl. But I dont want to crawl! Therein lies the contention.

Well, it's all 'Asha' for now. On friday, there's the carboloading for all the comrades. And there's also the plan to decorate the T-shirt with the name so people can cheer during the marathon. It is all very exciting. :) It's going to be one helluva experience, one way or another. And am gonna preserve it in my memories for a long time!

Miles to go before we sleep

...And those that we've already crossed. It's been, in one word, an experience. I feel a bond with my running buddies, that is fastened with encouragement, common joys, shared pain, milestones, jokes, disciplines and all the accompaniments.

It's been a roadmap from Wednesday to Saturday, from Smoothies to Breakfasts. And now, Friday evening pastas. All too soon, the marathon day is bang in sight!

These are a few of the small things I am going to miss (assuming we dont quickly latch on to another marathon) -
(And I dont know why/when I've picked up this habit of putting down 'points'!)
*** Saturdays
*Lubdha's unerring morning call. And my gladness at already being up by the time the phone starts chanting.
*Being at peace with myself. Pacing about, stretching, taking my energy drink, looking out the window at the early morning lull
*Rohan's 'Dhinchak' tracks in the car. Usually pep me up! Lubdha, Vikas and now Zoheb in the pleasant 'Good Morning' league
*Starting the run, setting the goal, turning on the music
*The sight of Lake Washington... majestic, beautiful... thinking EVERYTIME of owning a house that spans 6 house numbers on the block. :) Admiring every well tended garden. Basically ignoring the pain in the legs while still focussing on the path.
*Pit stop at Madrona Park. Lubdha and I are always counting on that one!
*The cute little doggies. I have ALWAYS slowed down at the sight of them. I hope there are no doggies to distract me on marathon day.
* Funny sights... like the one in the rain, with this girl running with black mascara tears running down her face! Or the one Rohan mentioned, with the tiny dog doing it's best to snap at Vikas' heels!
* GU stops, turning back from the predecided mile markers... feeling like flying!
* Singing 'Just keep running, Just keep running' in Dory's tone, at mile 8.
* Looking out for Prospect Street and almost always being pleasantly surprised that it's been crossed.
* The sight of 'Fireside Terrace'. It means the last 0.1 mile. I lovvvvvve seeing it!!
* Seeing Chuck standing there with folded arms. And sometimes, a hint of a smile. (Sulk!)
* Lubdha's reminders to stretch after!
* Sweet exachanges and thumps on the back for timing. Recounting interesting discoveries of nerves, muscles, lungs... sights. :)
* Drive back with a lot of discussions of this and that!
* Elaborate breakfasts with a completely guiltless conscience! Reminders to each other to stretch, ice, run!

It's been so amazing! I've enjoyed every instant of this experience. And I sincerely hope it doesnt stop here. Vikas is already baiting me with the mountaineering idea... :)
And I want to run more marathons with Lubdha.
I want to have at least one breakfast at Rohan's place.
And I want to learn some more stretches and teach them to Zoheb. :-D

More on the Wednesday routines... coming soon...

Random murmuring of tiny thoughts

For a while now, I've considered, weighed, discarded, weighed, reconsidered, weighed, the possibility of someday writing something worthwhile. I mean, worth somebody else's while too. :-D

'While' I have precious little to speak for that, I have at least made a conscious decision now, to preserve whatever negligible cactii may bloom out of the scattered and contourless expanse of the desert of my talent. (Whew! How's that for 'deliberate attempt'? ;-) When I said I'd try, I meant it!! ;-)). Er... that figure of speech is called 'metaphor' BTW.

My inspirations have been as random and as illogical as these-
1) My college friends STILL say that I hold the unbeaten record of longest and _most_ explanatory names for variables in a C program.
2) They also, still curse me for the sore thumbs from copying out the long-worded assignments I mercilessly churned out. (He he, also makes it look like I was the poor champ who did all the original writing. Actually, also sounds like I was the nitwit who gave it away!).
3) I have a few short stories and a few poems written on some of the 'good' days.. sigh...
4) J. K. Rowling has become a millionnaire.
5) I know enough math to calculate that the number of friends I have are enough for me to make a small fortune if each of them buys my (someday) book. (Yes, they are kind people! :P Yes, REALLY kind.)
6) I suspect I have an evil bent of mind. :-(
7) This list is not making me look good. Shall update it with more later. :-(( ....

So the point is, an effort to discipline myself through the marathon will hopefully also help me meet some of the other goals that beckon. Like Lubdha rightly said today, it's not just the marathon day, it's all the grit that went into turning from a rolling-ball-of-flesh to a cantering-mass-of-muscle. And there will be more marathons, and more challenges. ITBS or otherwise.

The blog of the jog brigade

A comment I linked to a blog I never update, from a blog Vikas frequently updates, to give an idea of what we've been upto, because the fingers are too lazy to type it all out again... Anyway... read this!

It's official!

Well...(sheepish grin) ... it wasnt the knee after all. The culprit is the oh-so-fancy-sounding illiotibial band. I have a condition similar to Vikas'. ITBS. No points for guessing, Illio Tibial Band Syndrome.

So, last night was a restless one. Slept late instead of early, didnt sleep well, didnt drink enough water. Woke up in the morning to feel uneasy and had a tummy upset. It was really foggy outside and I suddenly had cold feet thinking I wouldnt be able to run!!! Well, but then did my usual energy-drink-and-GU ritual (It's not how it sounds!!!) and then off I was with the other warriors, to the running field. Well, Lubdha and I discussed the distance to run and after much deliberation, decided to do the longer 4.8 mile loop around GreenLake-WoodlandPark and the 2.8 mile loop around the lake. (There are ducks to look at while running, and it's a curious sight. Well... the ducks might be enjoying watching my antics as well :0D) (And I got my pair of gloves finally, but it turned out to be warm today. Drat!) Anyways, as we ambled off towards our goals, both Lubdha and I were merrily chatting and not focussing on our respective injuries. Alas, we couldnt wish them away. It turned out to be a disastrous series of stretch-stops, walks, painful masochistic running and more pain. As I hobbled back to my 4.8 mile return point, I was in tremendous pain already. Luckily, Cary could identify my symptoms as classic ITBS ones, having suffered from it herself. The stretches she prescribed eased it quite a bit. I was all raring to go for the second loop, but Lubdha's words of wisdom held me back. I hoped it would be fine if I just took it a little easy.

But then, when'd life start getting this easy. A slight-warning-but-nothing-much injury would have not prompted me to write all this. So as I tried on a new pair of shoes at the Super Jock n' Jill Annivery sale, I could not even run for the life of me. Man! This is frustrating. I have been tightly wound (well, not as tightly as the @#$@ ITB) ever since!! I WANT TO RUN THE MARATHON. And I want to run another one... and another one... and another...

So am going to do all it takes to get back on line. I can now hear a disticnt cocking sound from the knee every time I bend it while walking. I hope it's for effects only. Well, fingers crossed. And legs too. (That's the stretch that causes the ITB to ease the pressure from the knee and stimulates the hip muscle in the band).
\

A touchy knee!

Ouch! What hurts more is not that it's hurting so, but that this is the most inopportune and ruthless time for it to. Am fuming. Quite rightly so. I mean, c'mon! Dont give up on me... you are my knee. Did I ever give up on you? When you wobbled, pronated, hurt or sometimes just screamed?

Well, here's the whole story. Or as much of it as is relevant.
Vikas, Rohan, Lubdha and I are running the Seattle Marathon. (I was to put my earlier notes on this up LONG ago...) I recently put up my profile and sent a (not-so)heart rending mail to those likely to part with a few dollars for the greater good of mankind in general. Well, I got all the, "Yup, u'll do it", "Will be there to cheer you on", and "Nice job" mails. Pleased as a punch that I hadnt (thus far) sustained any injuries (Rohan, Vikas and Lubdha all did), I marched on to impending doom.

When they say listen to your body when you work out or run, I think it's a joke. Coz if I start listening to my body, I wont take that step ahead. It's the mind that keeps singing 'Just keep running, just keep running' (in Dory from Finding Nemo style). So I dont trust it when my knee starts pretending to hurt, my ankle starts acting like it broke, or my lungs start threatening to burst. I know their games. How was I to know the ol'knee was serious this time round? Well, but sadly, it was pretty grim. And then grumpy. Coz after Wednesday's run, it refused flatly to bend (to my whims). Anyways, 'elaborate' attention, two days of 'rest' and some kindness have been rewarded with the regained ability to limp, hop and occasionally walk without making a picture of myself. Tomorrow is the usual Saturday morning long run. And here I am, pleading with my knee to behave itself. People passing by my office are wondering what I am doing...some of them had queer looks of pure concern. (I distinctly read the "Poor thing, been running too much... first the knee and now... tch tch" expression a while back). My dustbin is an array of icepacks, covers et al. Well, now who can say I havent been good to the ol' body?

Anyways, after all that, I had to let go this way. Here's a sigh of (comic) relief! ...High... er... Sigh..!