Back to Work - Already Looking Forward to Next Vacation

Well, I got back home ok...even on time.  As a friend told me, in spite of the flight issues I had going out to Vegas, my return flights were sure to go off without a hitch...and they did.  The only "near hitch" was as I waited for my flight to leave Las Vegas to fly to Detroit.  As I was waiting, the airline employee came on the intercom to announce that they were looking for a volunteer to give up their seat on the flight, as they were overbooked.  Since I had no place to go that evening, but home, I made my way to the counter and was standing there before she even had a chance to finish the announcement.  The deal was that, if I gave up my seat, Delta would give me a $200 voucher and pay for my lunch while I waited for my next flight.  Not a bad deal, but would it work if I had a connecting flight?

The employee did some checking and let me know that I would be able to take advantage of the offer and switch flights.  I would not leave Las Vegas for two more hours, however, I would arrive back in Columbus only 30 minutes later than I was originally scheduled.  Not a bad deal considering they were also willing to pay me $200 and buy me lunch.  In addition to that, I would connect through Atlanta rather than Detroit, and my flight from Atlanta to Columbus would be First Class.  You know I was all over that offer!!  Well, unfortunately it turned out that two people didn't show for the flight, so they no longer needed me to give up my seat.

I will say this though, I'm done flying American Airlines, but was more than happy with the service I got from Delta.  If you read my earlier blog entry you know that I had booked my flights through Delta, but had go out to Vegas on American Airlines because of an issue with the plane.  My experience with American Airlines was less than pleasant.  Their employees were rude, the planes were cramped and dirty.  Delta employees were all pleasant to deal with and the planes were clean and much more comfortable.  Every plane, Delta included, could stand to add a little more room instead of packing people in like sardines, but I can say that I don't intend to fly American Airlines again, but am happy with the service and comfort I got from Delta.

I was at work 4 hours early this morning because of a markoff on third shift, and I started looking towards my next vacation.  Rather than this being an impromptu vacation, this week off has been scheduled for a while.  I started looking at flights and rooms to return to Las Vegas during that week and was able to find and even better price on the flight than I found last time, as well as an even better rate on rooms at the Excalibur in Las Vegas.  So I went ahead and booked the flight, and the room, and will be returning to Las Vegas.  Not sure if it will be quite as pleasant.  While temperatures on this last trip ranged from 90-103, the next time is likely to be even hotter.  "But it's a dry heat".  

First Day of Vacation

One of the original diversion tunnels that diverted the Colorado River while Hoover Dam was being built

Eight of the Generators that produce electricity from the water of the Colorado River

Lake Mead from a scenic overlook

Colorado River winding through mountains.  Taken from scenic overlook along I-93

Not the Shortest of Trips

Well...I'm in Las Vegas, but the trip was not short by any means.  I was scheduled to fly out of Columbus on Delta Airlines at 5:15pm on Monday, flying to Atlanta with a 40 minute holdover and then on to Vegas where I was scheduled to land at 9:05pm Western Time.  Well, the flight from Columbus was slightly delayed getting in and then they had to inspect one of the tires on the plane.  So it wasn't long in to the delay before my name was called to come to the counter.  The people at Delta were concerned that the delay would cause me to miss my connection, so they offered to put me on an American Airlines flight leaving at 7:05pm from Columbus and flying through Dallas; scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas at 11:05pm.

So while I'm waiting on the flight to now leave Columbus I stopped and got something to eat.  The flight went off without a hitch, and actually got to Dallas about 40 minutes earlier than scheduled.  The layover in Dallas was a little longer, so I grabbed a snack and went to the gate.  At that point the screen already showed the connecting flight delayed by 25 minutes, that time continued to go up a little at a time...again because the flight was delayed getting there from its original destination.  However, the agents at the gate assured all the passengers that as soon as the plane landed, all the passengers deplaned, and the plane was cleaned up, they would begin boarding and get on to Vegas.

So the plane arrived, and de-boarded, and the ticket agent came over the intercom and announced that boarding would be delayed "a few minutes" while they checked out a maintenance issue.  After a few minutes the agent came back on the intercom and announced that they had to call in a maintenance crew to fix the maintenance issue and it would be a few minutes longer.  The next announcement started with "Don't shoot the messenger" and proceeded to explain that the maintenance issue was "unresolvable" and that they would have to find a new plane and a new gate to pull that plane up to.

After all of that, we finally got on our flight and headed to Vegas.  We landed at about 12:20am Vegas time.  By the time I was able to get my bag, get my rental car, and get to my hotel, it was nearly 2:00am Vegas time (or 5am Columbus time).

But, I'm here in Vegas.  Gonna do some sight seeing for a few days.  As a friend told me yesterday, "I'm sure the flight LEAVING will be right on time."

Running Bug

After running a half marathon, the typical "week after" is supposed to one of rest.  But I found myself with a bug to keep on running.  So, I went out and did, what I thought would be, a fairly easy run last night.  The route that  I usually walk through my neighborhood is 4.2 miles long.

I was happy with the time I ran that distance, showing that I'm continuing to improve my running times.  There's also a couple decent sized hills on that course that I felt pretty good about how I was able to handle those hills and recover afterwards.  

With those things in mind, I've already started setting goals for the Columbus Half Marathon in October.  Goal #1 is to finish in under 3 hours.  That would mean cutting a little over 8 minutes off of my time, something that I think is very doable.  I was going to make my "better goal" to finish in under 2:45...but after looking at my time for the Disney World Half Marathon that I ran back in 2010, I'm going to revise that goal and say that I'd like to finish is under 2:44:40, thereby beating my time for that half marathon.

I'm not shooting for a personal best (not yet anyway).  My personal best time for a half marathon is 2:19:29 in 2009.  But I was in the middle of training for a full marathon at that time and the majority of that course was either flat or a slight downhill grade.  I don't think I'll be back to that point by this October.  But I do hope to eventually get to a point when I can beat that time.  I don't know that I'll ever feel like running a full marathon again, I've already done two of those.  But preparing for, and running, half marathons will keep me motivated, will keep me training, and will keep me challenged.

I also want to get back to working on a goal I set a few years ago.  That goal was to run a race in all 48 of the continental United States. So far I've run races in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.  With the costs of runs getting more expensive, as well as the costs of travelling, it's probably going to take me even longer than I originally anticipated, but I hope to eventually be able to say that I've accomplished that goal.

Goal #1 Down and Feeling better about Goal #2

At the beginning of the year I set two New Years Resolutions.  New Years Resolutions, as we all know, are those things you promise yourself you'll do, but then never actually accomplish.  My resolutions were to run (and finish) the Cap City Half Marathon and the Columbus Half Marathon.  Today, I was able to make good on that first resolution, and I'm feeling even better about that second resolution now.

Some things today went according to plan, while others ...  not quite so much.

I got everything ready to go last night.  The shorts, the shirt, the running shoes, the running socks, the iPod, my grandpa's lucky silver dollar, my lucky silver dollar, the bottle of Powerade Zero and the six packs of GU...everything.  Prior to putting the iPod in the bag I checked the charge...looks good..no problem (or so I thought) ... more on that later.

I had my alarm set for 5:00am.  I wanted to make sure I was up in plenty of time to take care of any last minute details and get downtown in plenty of time to deal with any possible traffic/parking issues.  Got up, got showered, got dressed, even had time for a cup of coffee.  I packed some cheerios and blueberry yogurt in a bag to eat once I got downtown for a little pre-race fuel.

I made it downtown with no problem, despite the construction and the event taking place, I made it downtown fairly quickly and found a parking spot on about 1-2 blocks from Columbus Commons where the race was going to finish.  Now 1-2 blocks sounds close BEFORE you run a half-marathon...AFTER you run a half-marathon the idea of walking another 1-2 blocks just to get to your car is excrutiating.

I was just the second car to pull in to this parking lot and put my $4.00 in the night drop box to pay for my parking.  Good thing too, because shortly after I got there the parking lot attendant got to work and put up a sign raising the price to $8.00 for "Event Parking" (Score 1 for me).  I ate my cheerios and yogurt, put on my iPod and realized I had no place to carry my cell phone.  I was supposed to be meeting a friend from work before the race and she had told me that she'd text me to let me know where to meet her.  I sent her a quick text before leaving my car, letting her know that I would not be carrying my cell phone, but I'd try to find her amoung the 13,000+ people that were there..I never did find her.

Then I started packing the GU in the small pocket of my running shorts.  That pocket is typically meant to carry a spare car key, maybe one pack of GU.  I knew that I would need at least six packs for this race.  I was able to squeeze 3 in the pocket and tucked 3 more in my socks.  On the way to the starting line I realized that three sharp foil packets rubbing my ankles for 13.1 miles was not going to cut it.  I was able to put one more packet in that pocket and realized that I'd just have to carry the other two while I ran (Score 1 for the Running god's sense of humor).

As with any well-organized marathon or half-marathon, there were hundreds of porta-johns near the starting area.  I was lucky, while most people were lined up at the group of bathrooms lining Broad St., I saw several more on Long St.  I was able to make my way to a porta-john that had not been used (much) and was still pretty clean (Score 2 for me).

I headed to the starting corrals and realized at that point that I was still wearing my glasses.  Now I'm sure I had plenty of time to walk back to my car, put them in the bag, and make it back to the starting line.  But I'm getting ready to run 13.1 miles and walking back uphill to my car didn't seem like a wise choice to me, so I ended up running with my glasses on, not something I like to do (Score 2 for Running god's sense of humor).

At about 7:30 they started telling people to load in the corrals.  Despite what has happened in past years, they were bound and determined to get this event kicked off right on time.  I'm guessing that President Obama's rally being right along the running course later in the day had something to do with them wanting to make sure things didn't drag out too long.  As I'm standing in the Corral, now 20-25 minutes from the first group being scheduled to start, I realize that I need to use the restroom again.  (Shut up Lauren).  But now I'm in the corral, do I dare brave leaving the corral and finding a porta-john after so many more people have shown up.  I'm sure that by now the lines are long and they're not nearly as clean.  I decided to wait and just find one along the course, even though I know that it will be many miles before I find a set of porta-johns without a long line of other runners waiting (Score 3 for the Running god's sense of humor).

The race did get started on time, and as my corral approached the starting line the announcer let us know that the leaders were approaching the 4 mile mark!  Now they were not putting a whole lot of time between the starts of these corrals, so those guys in corral A were moving!  As my corral got going I was able to turn on the music on my iPod and got a decent pace going.  My fear was that I would start too fast, but I felt good about the pace and tried to keep it slow and steady.  At mile 1 I looked at my stop watch and was under 13:00.  This was a lot better than I had hoped, and I thought that maybe I should slow down my pace a bit more, but decided I was feeling good, not too winded and I'd just keep it up.  I wasn't real winded on my walk breaks, so when mile 2 came around at just about 25 minutes I was feeling pretty good.  I was already 5 minutes ahead of my goal pace and liking it (Score 3 for me).

But wait, at about the 2 mile mark something else happened.  My iPod, right in the middle of the Village People singing YMCA, just stopped.  That happens sometimes when I run, I just figured that some sweat got on the touch screen and "confused" it in to thinking I had touched pause.  I looked at the iPod but couldn't see the screen through the fogged up case I was carrying it in and had wrapped around my arm.  So, on the next walk break, I took the case off my arm and removed the iPod.   The screen was dark, so I pushed the button to bring up the screen...nothing.  I pushed it again...nothing.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!  My iPod, my only link to sanity on any long run had picked now, two miles in to a 13.1 mile run to stop working (Score 4 for you-know-who).

This is the first time I've ever run any event without the iPod playing music in my ear.  I found something out though.  As much as I like having that music playing, being on the course with all those people, combined with the band's, the DJ's and the spectators, I didn't NEED that iPod.  If I'd have known that it would work out that way I just wouldn't have brought it with me.  I will still continue to wear it, but if it goes out at another event it will not be so traumatic for me.

The only other "glitch" of the race came at mile 4.  I had run the first four miles on a run 4/walk 2 pace.  I had decided that at mile 4 I would switch to a run 3/walk 2 pace.  So when I went to reset my interval timer on my watch, I accidentally reset the stopwatch instead, making it impossible for me to know for sure what my finishing time was until the results get posted.  I think I was at about 50:00 when I reset the watch, because I seem to remember thinking that I had gained another 5 minutes on my goal pace, so I'm thinking I finished right around 3 hours and 5 minutes.  If that's the case, not only did I beat my goal of averaging 15 minute miles, but I beat my "head in the clouds" goal of averaging 14:30 per mile (Score 4 & 5 for me...I win).

Thanks for all the support from my friends and family.  I've got two other runs this year that I've already registered for.  Both come this fall.  One, of course, is the Columbus Half Marathon in October.  The other is the Tunnel to Towers 5K in New York City in September.  I'm looking forward to preparing for both of those events.

Official times have been posted...my official time was 3:08:06, so I was able to accomplish all of my goals for this run!

Am I Nervous?

I've been asked several times over the last couple of days if I'm nervous about running the Cap City Half Marathon tomorrow.  Or if I'm ready.  I'm nervous...but here's why...

But I'm prepared...

End of a long week and start of a long weekend

Today is my 10th straight day of work, but the last day before I start a 4 day weekend (at least that's the plan).  Yesterday was a 16 hour day for me, so I'm anxious to get out of here today.  It won't be a completely restful weekend, but it is one that I'm looking forward to.

Tomorrow I will head in to downtown Columbus for the Cap City Fitness Expo and pick up my race packet for this weekend's 1/2 Marathon.  On Saturday I have to be up early and ready to go downtown, fight the traffic and parking issues and then take part in the Cap City Half Marathon.  I'm looking forward to the "sense of accomplishment" that will come when I cross the finish line.  I'm NOT looking forward to the way I expect my legs to feel after running 13.1 miles through Columbus.  The course is a new course this year and will end at the Columbus Commons Park near the state house and they're advertising something that 24 or 25 bands along the course as well as many DJ's, so that should help keep my mind a little less focused on being tired and a little more focused on enjoying the run.

Rule #1 of any long run like this is to NOT wear a new pair of running shoes.  Wear shoes that you've had time to break in a little.  I will be wearing a new pair of running shoes.  The reason is that I waited a while before buying new shoes, thinking that some of my old running shoes were still in good enough shape to put more miles on them.  However, when I went to buy the new shoes I found out that my feet had grown longer and thinner.  Don't ask me how this happened, but my shoe size went from a 14EE to a 15D.  So, I'm really at less of a risk of blisters and sore feet wearing the new pair of shoes that are less broken in but the right size, than I would be wearing a pair of shoes that have been broken in, but are too small.  I also found out that I have been wearing a stability shoe and should be wearing a neutral shoe.  Doesn't mean much to a non-runner, but basically means that I could have ended up with some knee injuries if I'd continued in the stability shoes I'd always worn before.  Since I never really had any issues when I used to run before, I'm guessing that my footstrike has changed over the past couple of years, requiring me to change the type of running shoe I use.

I'm a little nervous because, at this point, I just don't want to be one of the people who are told to either "get on the sidewalk" so they can open the street back up, or "get in the van" so I can be driven to the end of the race.  I want to finish the race on the road, get a finisher's medal, take some time to let my legs recuperate, and then get ready for running my next half-marathon in October.