248.8

I gained five pounds this week. I’m not too shocked. I ate HORRIBLY all week.

The weight loss train is officially off the tracks. I’m almost 15 pounds over my low. I’ve got to get a hold of things ASAP or I”m gonna be 300 pounds soon.

I just got back from Baltimore. My first half marathon is in the books.

I got to the expo to pick up all my stuff late Friday night. The race was sponsored by Under Armour so we all got some really cool shirts. Every level got a different color. The half marathoners got blue. I like it. It’s pretty sweet. We also got a bib and a disposable chip which is nice.

Later we went to eat at a restaurant near our hotel. They were having a special pasta buffet for all the runners. I ate until it hurt. Pasta, salad, cookies, fudge, wine … you name it. Leave me alone. I was carbo loading - LOL.

I worried that I wouldn’t be able to sleep but I had no trouble. To be honest, I wasn’t really worried about the race. I’ve run this distance quite a few times. I’ve never been worried about achieving a certain time. I just want to finish. I knew I would.

I woke up and ordered room service from the hotel. Had some eggs and sausage. Didn’t eat much of it but then I grabbed a few pastries from the lounge on our floor. No trouble eating that. Mostly, though, I focused on getting hydrated. I drank a TON of water.

I drank so much that by the time I got to the starting line I immediately got in the bathroom line. Probably stood there for 30 minutes but it was worth it. Bathroom issues weren’t an issue afterwards. There were port a johns all along the race and the lines weren’t that long. I stopped once and it probably took me one minute.

I was assigned to the third and final wave of runners. I decided that I was going to go to the very back. No pressure, no anxiety. I just wanted to finish. I was literally one of the final two or three to start the race. This made things difficult to start. People were literally walking before the first mile. I probably passed a hundred people in the first few minutes. It was ridiculous. Afterwards, things cleared up and I had plenty of room the rest of the way.

As for the race, I’ll say this - it was tough. Baltimore is VERY hilly. It felt like I spent the majority of the race going uphill. It was the main topic of conversation with everyone I talked to afterwards. That being said, it wasn’t too big of a deal. I never felt like I couldn’t go on. The only time I walked was during water stops.

I think the people of Baltimore are a big reason why it didn’t feel so bad. They were really cool. They lined the streets and cheered us on. Everywhere we went people were standing on the streets or on their stoops encouraging us. Every once in a while we’d run into a group playing music really loud. It felt like we were invading a block party. I liked it.

I chuckled my way through most of the run. I heard “eye of the tiger” more times then I can count. Cracked me up every time. I also really appreciated the guy in the chicken costume telling us to run if we weren’t too “chicken”. The biggest laugh was from some random guy at mile 12 who said that we should all “run his wife out of town.” I don’t know if that was really funny or we were just delirious from all the mileage. Nevertheless, we were smiling as we hit the home stretch. I crossed the finish line in much better spirits then I did when I ran my 5K and my 10K.

I ended up running 2 hours and 29 minutes. Not too shabby for me. I picked up my medal, got some fruit and water and walked to my hotel. I was a little shocked at how good I felt. The funny thing is that when I got to the hotel I pulled off my shoe and discovered that my left sock was covered in blood. All my toes were red. I didn’t even feel it! It still doesn’t hurt. Weird.

All in all, a great experience. I could definitely see myself running another half marathon again. Unfortunately, now I’ve got that marathon staring me down. That will probably be another story…..

4 miles.

My training is going to hell. I managed to find excuses to skip the past four runs.

I don’t know that I would have went to this one if I didn’t decide to go with my wife to the gym. She’s been really diligent about going to her classes so I would have felt pretty dumb not going for a short run on the treadmill.

My hip has been bothering me lately and it acted up at the beginning of this one. The pain went away after about 10 minutes. I need to remember that in the future.

My half marathon is Saturday. There won’t be any more runs until then. I’m leaving for my hotel tomorrow. Hopefully, my lack of running lately won’t hurt me too much.

243.8

Gain of one pound. That’s a minor miracle considering what I did this week. I saw 246.8 one morning a few days ago.

Training for this marathon is obviously hurting my weight loss plans. Everything I read before I started told me that it’s hard to lose weight this way. I believed it but I guess I just didn’t expect to gain 10 pounds along the way.

This will all be over in three weeks. Then I can take a week or two off to recover before I finally go back to the gym. I look forward to lifting again. Hopefully I can finish the year off strong and maybe even log a new low before 2009.

Planned - 10 miles

Actual - 5 miles

I never really thought I’d run 10 miles today. I just figured I’d go as long as I could.

Still have hip and thigh issues that worry me a little. I don’t want to be hurting too much for my big race on Saturday. After five miles I decided to call it a day. Didn’t really stress over it too much.

I’m not going to run the next two days in the schedule. I’ll try to sneak in my three next week but I want to make sure to take at least two days off before the race.  I’m sure my hotel has a treadmill so there’s really no excuse for not getting back at it on Monday.

5 miles

This week is shot all to hell.

I’ve made quite a few friends recently. We ended up doing what a lot of friends do - drinking beers. I hung out at a bar with a different set of guys on two different nights. I spent the third night at the apartment of some friends that my wife recently met. Lets just say that I was in no shape to do any running on any of those nights.

This was supposed to be my week with the most total mileage. Instead, I snuck in the first run on Friday night. I’ve got my half marathon next Saturday so I’m not going to go crazy with catching up. I’ll do what I can.

This run was somewhat of a success in that I actually finished it. When I started I had a lot of pain in my left hip, my left thigh and my right knee. I simply couldn’t run with the incline at 1.0. I ended up dropping it back to zero and gritting my teeth for a while. The leg pain became bearable but then I developed stomach pains. I had to slow it down to a walk a few times. I was determined to get those five miles, though, and I got them.

I guess the plan now is to try to fit in a 10 mile run tomorrow and a 5 miler on Sunday morning. I’m leaving town that afternoon for a few days so the odds of me getting my 20 miler in are slim and none.

154 minutes (14 miles)

I know this thing has pretty much been FAILblog lately but today I actually got the job done.

Once I’ve been running for more than an hour my mind starts playing tricks on me. I won’t be tired or hurting but I want to stop. I REALLY felt that today at the 90 minute mark. It was almost like my mind was saying, “DUDE, you ran 90 freaking minutes. I think that’s enough.” It’s wasn’t though, because I had a whole hour to go.

I found myself making little deals along the way. At 90 minutes I just said get to two hours and then you can walk a little bit. As the two hour mark was approaching I was REALLY looking forward to walking. It was at that point that I found a little inspiration.

This is dumb and a little embarrassing but here’s what happened. I started thinking about the HUGE Bama win last night against Georgia. A smile instantly crossed my face because that was freaking awesome. Then I thought about this year’s rallying cry, “FINISH.” I kept telling myself to FINISH. After about five minutes of that, something just came over me and I was hell bent on getting this done. Over the last 15 minutes I was running at the fastest pace of my entire run.

Before I knew it I looked at my watch and it was over. I was really proud of myself. Damn, that felt good.

ROLL TIDE ROLL

242.8

I had the cheat day to end all cheat days yesterday. I don’t know why I still weigh in on Sundays any more. Maybe I should do Saturdays from here on out.

Spent the entire week at 240.

55 minutes (5 miles)

I avoided this one yesterday and had huge reservations about doing it today. Somehow, I actually convinced myself to go outside and run this morning. Even more shocking is that I actually finished.

I wasn’t feeling too confident as I walked out to the trail. The first 10 minutes or so were just as miserable as I thought they would be. Eventually, however, things started to turn around. My mood gradually improved and around the 30 minute mark I started to actually have fun. I felt pretty good when I finished.

It’s really nice to go out without all the gear. Thirty minutes to an hour seems like a good time frame for me. I look forward to continuing these shortish runs after this marathon is over.

Planned - 9 miles

Actual - 3 miles

I’m sick and tired of training for this marathon.

Today was supposed to be a nine mile run but I just wasn’t feeling it. Motivation right now is zero. I think the coming month might be the longest four weeks of my life.