October 4, 2008 (18 miles) Hawt AsSphalts and Fleet Feet Runners! I don’t know about any of you, but I’m pooped! 18 miles! We did it! Coach Paul said to, “Mentally Cowboy Up for Hills gone Wild,” and we did; we all conquered Golf Ball Hill!! The weather was nice and cool, and I’m so glad Coach Tim, Paul, Ben and Brian let us run the hills at the beginning of our run! THANKS BUNCHES!
This was a great run for the most part, but by mile 9 or 10 of 18, I got a stitch! I’ve had stitches before, but never on a consistent basis. I’m a little frustrated, as it takes every ounce of energy in me to get rid of it. I have tried everything; while some things help—temporarily—that darn stitch keeps coming back. It’s a breathing problem; I have issues apparently. J (You’d think after 30 something years, I would have figured out how to breathe! Hahahaha!)
During the three hour run, the Hawt AsSphalts, specifically the coaches, had some GREAT topics for this blog—so many that there will be two or three this week. (One of the blogs will be courtesy of Tiffany Gunthers’ 4th grade class. You won’t want to miss it!)
We had 3 hours to discuss topics on this 18 miler. Here were the ones that got us laughing, cringing and pondering.
1. Cramping
2. Chafing
3. Road kill
4. Peeing while standing/running
Cramping. Wow! This feels like growing pains. Horrible. I asked Coach Paul, “What do you do about cramping?” He kinda laughed and said, “Nothing.” Okay, thanks, coach. Good talk!
Chafing. Ouch! This is just wrong. Clay (my co-anchor) asked what this was. Obviously he is not a runner. They say the major contribution to chafing is from sweating and rubbing, and it can happen to women or men. But, if you ask some of the guys who forgot band-aids or Body Glide on a long run—they’ll tell you how much it hurts. I’ll leave it at that. J
Road Kill. Gross! It’s amazing how aware of your surroundings you become when you are running forever. It’s sad, but true—on our 18 miler we must have seen at least a dozen animals that met their end on the road…thus the term Road Kill. Some of the animals were still recognizable. Others—not so obvious, but the fact of the matter was, there were a lot, and we were dodging them.
Peeing while standing/running/biking. WHAT?! To me, this seems impossible, but apparently it is common and no need to be embarrassed. This intrigued me for some weird reason. As I started researching, I found a blog on runnerslounge.com by Amy Hunold, written on August 29, 2007. Enjoy—I think! Haha!
“Amazing fact #1: According to a Running Forums poll, 53% of runners would pee while running. Here seems to be the generally accepted principles: if it means reaching a Boston Qualifying time (BQ) or Personal Record (PR), you are in a long endurance event or no one could tell that you did it - then go ahead.
Amazing Fact #2: Runners are having conversations about this! I was dumbstruck on the wealth of information on this topic. There are tips on peeing while swimming, biking and running. A good number are from triathletes. Probably the best of all is Slowtwitch on "The Fine Art of Evacuation while Biking", but there are more:
• Triathlon 101 from the ThunderBay Triathlon site provides instruction on page 8 to learn to pee while running.
• Fit from Fat wrote a post about how he took a lesson from Dean Karnanzes. (PS - Great blog to check out!)
• Iron Snoopy has also posted a few tips on biking and peeing.
• Runners World has a forum all about peeing while swimming
• Runango Running Forum had a forum on a "running while peeing"
Amazing Fact #3: Generally, it is acceptable, although there are a few races with "no pee" rules - but overall it is treated as a badge of honor when you finally break down and just go with it.
How could I be running all these years and not know of this perfectly acceptable behavior? It made me wonder what else I was missing out on. So I did another Google search on "peeing while working". I mean come on - there are few endurance events that can match the gruel of 8 hours of meetings. No luck. There is not much out there for step by step directions on that one. And as your friendly HR professional, I would be amiss if I didn't advise you against it. But now I know.”
After reading about this, the only thing that kept coming to my mind was NASA Astronaut Lisa Nowak who raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers in the car so she wouldn't have to stop to go to the bathroom. Obviously she didn’t experience chafing since she was sitting for 19 hours—but maybe she got a rash?! Haha!
Thanks to everyone who made the 18 miler fun and memorable. Coach Paul, thanks for keeping us on pace. I wish you were running Route 66, but I’m sure I’ll ask you 12 more times which marathon you are running, and thanks for not spitting on any of us! J Coach Brian…I’m so glad you ran with us. Your stories, laughter and energy are very appreciated; you can’t ever leave us!!! Coach Ben and Tim; the silent encouragers; I love running with you guys your steps kept me on pace! Tiffany, I hope your knee is okay and thanks for hanging back with me, I don’t know if I would have made it without ya! Leigh Ann, you will never know how much you helped me when I thought I was going to die. You grabbed my arm and kept me going—it did wonders for me. Dana, and Gladys, you guys are too funny and I am so glad you were there. Dana, thanks for helping me get rid of my stitch and Gladys, thanks for the pink “candy!” Mona, your stories made me laugh—but more importantly inspired Gladys to look up info on one of the topics listed above! Sandi, (I’m laughing while saying this,) but I may have to strangle you and your cute little toe-running ways. Hahahaha! You are wonderful and fast as lightning—and I can’t keep up with you as much as I want to! How do you do it? J Jeanean, I don’t think you ever look bad or tired after a run. You look cute, run cute and are as sweet as can be! Ladies, thanks for the invite to breakfast…I had been talking about eating since mile 10; I was HUNGRY! For anyone who I may have forgotten to name, I’m sorry…but please know that I appreciate your positive feedback, encouragement and good conversation.
For all who are running in the Chicago Marathon or any other marathon in the coming weeks, we will be anxiously awaiting your return to see how it went! Good luck!
Don’t forget, more blogs this week with 4th graders and a vlog with Coach Brian or Paul! J
Feel free to comment on how you felt on your run and what you observed and Happy running!
