Week 4 …That Dreadful Phone Call

I started this week of training feeling fresh and rejuvenated; I needed the fast paces back but life had a different plan. I’ve had the past few days off from work because the airplane is going to maintenance and our flight schedule has been pretty empty so it was looking to be a perfect training week. On Monday, my wife asked me to go to the Doctor with her for a regular check-up.  She had been having some issues with her menstrual cycle being heavier than normal but nothing to be concerned about until that day. We went to the appointment and Annie explained the whole situation to the Doctor; Dr. Sotir decided to check again and she found a mass that was about 1 inch in diameter; She thought it was a polyp but just to be sure we were sent to the OB/GYN which coincidently had an appointment open early Monday afternoon. The OB checked her yet again and he confirmed the mass but wasn’t really worried and took a biopsy just to be on the safe side. All in all, Monday was uneventful, the easy run I had to do was rather relaxing and enjoyable and I was excited to go to practice the following morning in Downtown Wilmington with the Without Limits Crew.

Tuesday at 5:50am we gather downtown for a nice fast practice on the “hills”  (we can’t really call them hills….everything is flat here). Legs felt awesome, Pace was coming back and finally my body was getting in synch with everything else. Annie went to work at 1pm and I had just gotten home when my phone rang which was unusual since she won’t call me after 2pm because of her job. It was her. I answered and she immediately said “It’s Cancer, I’m coming home”. My world was turned upside down within seconds and all I could say was “Come Home” . I can’t really tell you what happened next since we both were in a state of shock but you never expect something like this to happen to you or someone so close to you. We were told that she had an appointment at the Zimmer Cancer Center here in Wilmington at 9am and that was that. She came home and we started to process what the hell was going on but realised that She was actually taking it better than I was. I had to remain strong and not show much emotion but it was hard.

We went out to dinner that night and has actually a really nice time with our roommate but we couldn’t sleep at all. I kept waking up and she was obviously awake….so we talked. I told her that everything was going to be okay and we wouldn’t let this define our lives and then she said the hardest thing I’ve heard from her “I don’t want to die” I fell apart inside…I responded immediately “You are NOT going to die”

Walking into the Zimmer Cancer Center the following made it a bit more real but luckily our Oncologist Dr. Nieves and her Nurse were extremely professional and supportive. She told us that it was caught very early, the mass is about 2.5cm and as long as the cancer isn’t anywhere else, this should be a rather uneventful surgery, Chemo and Radiation will not be necessary. She has some tests on Monday to double-check that it hasn’t metastasized and on Tuesday we will be driving to Chapel Hill, NC to meet the surgeon who is considered the best in the country performing this type of surgeries. Hopefully the surgery will be within the next week or so and we can put this behind.

I went to practice on Thursday morning because I needed to burn the stress out and I told my Coach what was going on. I was supposed to run with the first group doing 6 x 1000 at around 5:20 pace. I started and I couldn’t for the life of me run more than 1 lap, I just wasn’t there mentally and I felt horrible, I couldn’t concentrate and I fell apart. My coach took me aside and pushed me to run with the second group at a slower pace and I finished the workout but I felt like in the Twilight Zone. I knew we were running fast but everything was moving slow from my point of view, it was like an out of body experience.

Friday was a personal day off; Annie is in Maryland with her best friend and she will be back Sunday to tackle this illness and move on with our lives. Let’s see how this easy run goes today…I need the alone time just to be out there with my running shoes and the road.

She is going to be OK and I’ll be there every step…..

Week 3

I took the whole week off due to the nagging leg and work. I had some therapy and after some extra time off, I should be back this week. Life just threw a curve ball at me but nothing we can’t handle. Also after watching some of my friends run in Houston this weekend, specially Christa in the Olympic Trials, I have yet another goal for myself and more sense of motivation. I never though I would feel this low again after such an awesome race season in 2011 but I am determined to dig myself out if this hole and get back into serious running…..a 2:40 is not going to run on its own.

NYC 26.2 Here I Come!

Geoffrey Mutai 2011 NYC Winner

So this morning I was awaken by an email from one of my budgeting apps telling me that a charge of $255.00 was made to my credit card. The first thought that crossed my mind was that it had been stolen since I had a $0 balance few days ago and I hadn’t used the card for anything. After a better look (this was at 5 am this morning) It said NYC Marathon; so I logged in to my ING NYC account and saw that I had been accepted to the 2012 NYC Marathon. Sweet!!! I am planning on taking this “race” easy, I will be running it and raising money for the Steps Foundation (just waiting to hear from them to see how I can join this awesome cause! www.smallstepsfoundation.org) which is Ryan and Sara Hall’s charity that is working towards helping poor kids in Africa.

…and finally, my boss told me that the aviation company I work for (www.flystrategicmoves.com), is going to put a sponsorship package together to help me with race fees, gear and travel expenses…this comes as a complete surprise to me and makes me realise how lucky I am to be surrounded by awesome people that support my crazy habit.

Katie, Michelle, David and my other NYC friends…I will see you guys this November!

Back to Basics Week 2

Week 2 of training wasn’t great either but motivation is finally starting to get back to “normal” levels. It’s weird how tough it is to run after being in such great shape just a few weeks ago. I did a few easy runs and went to 1 practice this week and I felt like I had no energy whatsoever. We did 3 sets of 800s @ 5:30m/m 2 minute rest 1200m @ 5:50m/m. The 1200s felt easy but the 800s were tough; luckily I had 4 other awesome runners in my group that kept me going through the practice. The following runs were easy pace but my long run on Sunday had to be cut way short because of a very tight left leg and nagging knee, nothing serious but there is no need to push through discomfort having 6 months until my next race. That was humbling. Hoping for a great week ahead….

So as the title says I am back to basics. Easy runs mean Easy. Rest and Ice/Epsom Salt baths and deep tissue massages at least once a week. No Garmin unless necessary for paces and no iPod either…just me and the road.

Back to Training…Week 1

I just finished my first week of running since some much needed time off after Palm Beach Marathon. Things didn’t go too well….everything hurts and my whole body is out of sync. The first practice downtown Wilmington with the crew was tough and the paces felt worse than the last miles of the marathon. Our second practice at the track went surprisingly well and for a second I believed my legs were getting back into running mode. Boy was I wrong! My long run on Saturday consisted of just 1 hour but it was the longest hour of my life. I finished with a cold soak of the legs in the ocean and hoping for a better week of training….I must admit, I have zero motivation to run right now, mainly because it hurts so damn much. I just need to be patient….Cheers!

My First Marathon – Palm Beach Marathon Race Report December 4th, 2011

Let me start by saying that I am not a writer whatsoever. I’ve been told that I write the same way I talk (if that makes any sense), so I apologize for grammar and ridiculousness In this race report. (hence the reason I became a pilot….writing skills are not required!)

We left Wilmington on Friday bright and early and were in our hotel in West Palm Beach by 12:30pm. After lunch we headed to the expo which was small, really really small and lacked volunteers with knowledge of the event which was the first red flag. I talked to Tracy Christian who ran this race last year and I was aware of the possible issues during the race, like aid stations having gatorade that tasted like a salt popsicle. I had planed for all that and had with me a few bottles of FRS/EFS and my gels.
That afternoon I had the pep-talk with Tom and organized my gear with bib #166 - I was stoked! We (my wife Annie and I) went to bed early since I knew I probably wasn’t going to sleep the night before the race.
Saturday was another easy day around West Palm with another visit to the expo to figure out were my wife was going to be along the course to update my family and friends on my progress, and also where to get my second bottle….well red flag #2 came when the guy in charge of checking bibs and regular information desk told us that “it was too difficult to put mile markers on the map online so that is why he didn’t know what was what”…..oh joy! We finally figured out that mile 8.5 was also the half marathon turn around and mile 22 for the marathon so she planned to be there.
That night I slept like a baby and after setting 3 alarms at 3:00 am, 3:05am and 3:15am, I was up showering and getting pumped for the race. As many of you know, I am a huge RUSH fan; part of my race ritual (yes, every race no matter the distance), is to crank the iPod loud and get in the running zone while listening to some of my favorite RUSH songs and visualize the race. I was ready.
We left the hotel and were at the start area by 5:30am to size up the competition. Yes, as arrogant as this might sound I was determined to win this race since Ronnie Holassie, the past 3 time winner wasn’t running. I knew I could run a low 2:40s marathon. Second place last year was 2:48, if I am not mistaken, so it was any one’s game that day. I did my easy warm up and drills while listening to south american heavy metal (yes, there is such a thing Crotty) and headed to the 6m/m corral at 6:35am.
The race started late due to a delay on the wheelchairmarathon  because of fallen branches along the route….oh yeah I forgot to mention, winds were 15-20mphin gusting to 25 and 75F with 60% humidity.
So here we go…race started (mixed with the half marathon, 10k and 5k) at 6:51am. I started nice and easy with a fellow that was going for a 2:45. 6:20s for the first mile….perfect! Legs were loose and breathing was under control after a wicked adrenaline rush. At mile 3, we ran past the start line and I was already feeling the heat so arm warmers were off and I tucked behind some big guys running the same pace. The wind was merciless….even behind a pack of runners I could feel the wind slowing us down and making things more difficult every mile. The first few miles were at around 6:17 or so which was perfect…I had my first gel and some FRS/EFS but I needed plain water. The aid station consisted of 2 guys filling cups and leaving them on the table for us to pick and keep running…..bad idea. A Canadian fellow that had joined us was swearing up a storm, I had my own nutrition so I was golden. At mile 8.5 I saw my wife Annie and I screamed for more FRS and told her no one was manning the aid stations; it was hot so singlet came off. For the next 6 miles the pace stayed the same and the wind got worse through the neighborhoods. The aid stations got worse: 1 if not 2 volunteers that were misinformed on how to hand fluids to runners (not their fault).
By mile 15 i knew I was in trouble, the wind was steady at 15+ mph and I had spent too much energy already. At mile 17 you head east into South Palm Beach Island and we saw the race leader on the side of the road bleeding  being taken off on a stretcher. This turn around was before a bridge were winds were easily 25mph and the pace slowing by every step. We turned around and enjoyed a little bit of a tailwind but that was short lived; we now had 9+ miles of tough winds and a straight shot from South Palm Beach County to the finish line.
I remember Tom telling me that mile 18 is were you decide if you can take more pain or if you would just let the pace fall and make it to the end. I was determined to run faster but my body wasn’t helping. My tongue was numb and tingly and my legs felt on fire. I pushed on and at mile 22 I saw Annie again; she stayed there because she noticed the debacle with the aid stations and you can’t imagine how happy I was to see her. By this point my dreams of winning my first marathon were shattered but I refused to quit. I kept telling myself not to mind @#$% myself with pace or overall times so the best thing was to imagine Tom screaming at me to keep on running just like in training.
Guts and glory until the end…at Mile 24 a guy yelled at me and told me 4th place was just ahead…..ha! Thanks dude my legs are on fire…I’m hanging to dear life now. Next aid station I had to stop and get water/gatorade…big mistake! Getting back into the running groove was hard and I wobbled for a few steps and off I went. Next aid station I stopped again and kept on thinking of Craig Alexander a few weeks ago running in Kona, when he stopped with a mile to go twice because of cramps. I saw mile 26 and I knew I was home. I put my arms up and ran towards the finish line: Annie somehow managed to be there and actually announced my name over the PA while I was crossing. I crossed and down I went.
I fell to my knees and a lady came and asked me if I needed medical help (she was a 1/2 runner)…of course I said no until I started seeing stars. I got up, with their help, and they took me to medical. I must say Palm Beach has about the hottest nurses and doctors (keep note Crotty) extremely professional and just good hearted staff. There, I saw the kid that collapsed at mile 17, he was fine and many others that had dehydration issues. After 4 liters of fluids,  water, an orange and a banana, I was on my way out with my firstmarathon under my belt.
I learned a lot. I knew I had the fitness to run a 2:40 ishmarathon and trust me the desire and determination were there just as well but the conditions were against me. I only lacked what the guys in front of me had and that is experience.  I couldn’t have finished without Annie’s help, she saved my race. 2:56:26 is not a bad first marathon and in the upside I did qualify for Boston on my first try…I’ll take it.

On the road to become an Elite Marathon Runner.

 It has been almost 2 years since I last posted here and after sharing my Palm Beach Marathon race report with my training group and coaches, I was asked to start writing again, so here is my second try. I promise I will keep it more up to date and will try to share the progress of my training to whoever is interested.

Life has changes quite a bit since that last post. I am still flying and training on the road as much as possible; I also participated and finished my first 2 triathlons (Patriots Half-Iron Distance and Beach2Battleship Full-Iron Distance Triathlon both in 2010), dealt with injuries and lack of motivation for many weeks but this past season change my way of looking at things.

I figured I would do more Ironman races; as a matter of fact I was registered for Ironman St George 2012 but after a long conversation with my wife and coach, I came to the conclusion that I love running so it was with a heavy heart that I withdrew from this race to focus on my new goal of becoming an Elite marathon runner. Sure it is a crazy idea since I started somewhat late in life, but rest assured that I will give it my best try and will persue it with all my heart.

This past season was amazing! (even though I only participated in a handful of races) I pushed myself beyond my comfort envelope, trained with some awesome people and came in tune with my body. I struggled through training with aches and crappy training days but after reading Ryan Hall’s book I realised that even the Elite have the same pains and discomforts as everyone else and that opened my eyes.

Before continuing I want to thank my wife Annie for her unconditional support throughout the past year, my Family (even though they are far far away), my dear friend and coach Jared Allen, who helped me discovered my love for running and has always believed in me no matter what (I’ll see you soon in Colorado!), my coach Tom Clifford and the whole Without Limits crew that always keep me in check, TrySports Wilmington for their continued support and finally to many friends that inspire me to become a better person and runner everyday…I love you all.

Letter by Paul Lopez

This was a letter I came across from a friend that died last year….We miss you Paul! Hope you find it as inspirational as I did.

“Simi will always be my home too, nothing will ever change that. The home I grew up in has now been sold. My brother lives in Sacramento. Aunts Uncles, and cousins are scattered from New Mexico, Vegas, Washington state, and OC out there. I have no family left there. I guess we are all nomads, but growing up everyone was from OC, the Valley, and Simi. Such a big family and we never see each other as much it is really kind of sad. Sandy, why can’t you pursue your dreams? You are still young and have a full life ahead of you. It is not easy though dreams take real sacrifice and dedication. Look at AMR those guys are back at it doing what they love. Dreams come from passion, and unfortunately not everyone will understand your passion. It is this passion that will make you good at what you want to do. People talk about how lucky people are or they are talented and meant to do that. Bull Shit people develop talents with in what they are passionate about, it is not coincidence.

Luck is the sacrifice that we paid going forward gaining the knowledge and ability to be good at what we do, and when opportunity presents themselves, we are able to capitalize on it. Luck my ass, people don’t want to sacrifice and use the word luck as some lose excuse justifying there lack of going in for it. I know about sacrifice, passion, and dedication these words are the foundation of dreams. So damn it the path you think you need to turn around on to get back does not exist. You need to create a new path trail blaze to new cross roads and play it. The path behind is eroded with time.

Sorry about the soap box there, but I get people telling me how lucky I am how easy I have it. Or I must be a rich kid. Those comments offend me. When everyone else was spending their money on fixing up cars out of high school, I laid on my back under dirty airplanes cleaning them while all of their oily sludge and goo dripped in my face. That got me 20 bucks to apply to my account with the flight school to count towards flying lessons. Everything I got I earned, no one gave me a dime, and I didn’t ask for anyone’s money or help. It took me 10 years from there to have the financial means to go after aerobatics. I sacrifice everything for it relationships it even cost me a marriage.

On the weekends I spent all day practicing aerobatics, missing all kinds of events. The other ones that get me is the guys in their 20’s that ask me how do they get sponsored in aerobatics as they like to fly but cant afford it. I tell them they better be willing to sacrifice, or it wont happen. You have to be good before any sponsors come your away and there is only one way to get good, dedication. I hope that did not come off as an angry tyrant, cause it sure reads that way to me when I re-read it. As I am by no means bitter of the path that got me here. I am actually quite proud of it and would not change a thing. I don’t know if I will sleep tonight what if that thing is really on a collision course with earth, but they did not want to cause global wide panic. Best Regards, Paul Lopez”

Paul Lopes and his MX-2 "We Miss You Paul!"

Painful Training

Few months ago I knew close to nothing about running, triathlon and for that matter training for races. I started “training” on my own for my first marathon in July of last year and ran my first Half Marathon in November just to “see” where I was with my running.  Right after this race I developed a very painful and frustrating injury…IT Band Syndrome on my right knee. Adam at TrySports told me there were two kinds of ITB pains, the kind of pain you can run with/through or the one that would stop you on your tracks. Lucky me, I got the kind of pain that stops me and makes me grab the knee even though it doesn’t help at all. Foam Roller, Active Release Therapy, plenty of Ice and almost 2 months of no running “helped” to get me back to running as of January 1st….or so I thought.

I joined a training program and club managed by serious athletes here on the Wilmington area through TrySports (a specialized Tri store www.trysports.com) and everything was going perfect until week 3.

Wicked Cold

Week 1 went as planned. Training consist of 6 days of running, each day is different for each runner, with a group workout on Thursdays at the UNCW track for core and drill workouts, which by the way were no joke!. Due to my work schedule (pretty much on call 24/7 365), I do a lot of my training on my own and in hotel gyms. I’ve never been a fan of treadmills but sometimes is the best option since we always get to our hotels rather late. On this week we flew to Boston for a few days. It was my first experience with cold weather running; even though I prepared myself very well to run in the cold and the run went very well, the IT Band on my right knee was feeling the effects but I managed to get in my 30-45 minutes run at a 8:24 pace predetermined by the coach.

Week 2 wasn’t particularly stellar. My long run was here in the  streets of Wilmington where most drivers aren’t too runner friendly, plus at mile 7 the right knee really started to bother me. The following workouts were somewhat OK. The Tempo run and Stride workout at the track went well but I could really start feeling the effects of the training on the knee, so much that the foam roller brought me to tears since the pain was so intense, and then there was Week 3….

Week 3 started with a long run on a treadmill in Kissimmee, FL where after 80 minutes I felt like I was going to die, my right knee looked like a balloon! From there things just went downhill. The tempo run was painful and was cut short and even after taking 2 days off from running, the Sunday long run turned into the shortest long run, consequently the longest 3 miles I have ever walked to my car. While walking back from the famous “Loop” in Wrightsville Beach to the Starbucks where I had parked my car, I saw Lou from TrySports, he stopped to see if I was ok. I honestly felt embarrassed to be walking but I just couldn’t run anymore….

Frustration....

The Wrightsville Beach Marathon is in 2 months and I really  can’t afford to lose much time with this injury if I want to reach my goal but I decided to take Week 4 completely off from training and concentrate on doing my best to get my leg back to distance running status. I am already registered for this race and I will make my final decision in about 2-3 weeks. It would be great to take part on the inaugural Wilmington marathon but I will not risk my chances of competing in the Ironman. I must say I miss the days where I could run without worrying about the pain and frustration that an injury brings but this is just a bump on the road….it is going to take much more than this pain to prevent me from crossing the 140.6 finish line later on this year.

2010

Early morning departure out of New Orleans, LA

I must say that 2009 was a year full of ups and downs for me. We had a very slow start for the year at work and the move to a new city didn’t come easy personally.

For many weeks (and I must say I am ashamed to admit this), I did absolutely nothing; woke up just to find that I didn’t have a purpose for that day and wasted precious time of my life without a reason to truly live to the fullest.  Trust me I hit bottom, but then I discovered running.

Now let me tell you a bit about myself. I grew up telling everyone that I was going to be a Pilot and was going to fly for a living, many people laughed at me and never took me seriously but in 2005 I started my flight training and am proud to say that now I am a Professional Pilot with a very successful career in aviation. The past 5 years were spent working really hard to be able to pay for training. Countless sleepless nights and long stressful days at work and school but I made it; so to wake up and not even enjoy flying was devastating for me as a person.  Aviation is my life, Running gave me a reason to wake up every morning.

The past 6 months have been the best 6 months in a long time.  I started enjoying the little things in life yet again…ran my first race ever which was a 5k and finished 5th overall, 1st on my age group with a time of 19:26 and I was hooked. Two weeks later I ran my first Half Marathon, The Battleship Half Marathon and finished 35th out of 1100 runners and even though I missed my personal goal by just 2 minutes and 44 seconds, my official time of 1h 37mins and 44secs was not so bad for my first race, sadly I also lost 1st place in my age group by less than 20 seconds but a knee injury held me back at the end.

I also met some great people through the running world (Adam, Mike, Lou, Richard, Tyler and many more) but I am especially thankful of meeting a certain person that just makes me happy; she is the best thing that has happened to me since I moved. I’m going to miss her.

But for this coming year, I have many goals that I WILL accomplish and here are just a few:

Run my first marathon and qualify for Boston on my first try. (I need to run under 3h 10m 59s)

Run Boston under 3 hours

Run a 5k under 19minutes

Run and Finish the Beach2Battleship Full Ironman distance race here in Wilmington, NC or participate in the Ironman Arizona

Upgrade to Captain

Finish my Certified Flight Instructor Rating

…that should keep me busy for a while, best of luck this year to everyone.