Registered for CM Marathon

[ChouDoufu]

it's now official, i faxed in my registration and transferred the entry fee.

the marathon will be held december 27th, start time 4:00 a.m. i'm
hoping for a 4-hour time, around 9 minutes/mile. should be done by
8 am, and in dunkin donuts by 8:30.

only nine weeks left, and i'm a bit worried i won't be ready. it's hard to
train here, with daytime temps still in the 90's and humidity in the 90's
as well. i tried the early morning runs, but it's too hot by 8am, and in the
afternoons it doesn't cool down until 5, and gets dark at 6. hopefully as
winter approaches, temps may get as low as 80. (brr....i'll wear gloves)

i haven't been able to run more than 7-8 miles without stopping due to
the heat and humidity. i'm positive i could do a half-marathon now if
cool enough. not sure about a full marathon. i know i could walk the
course in 6 hours, bicycle in one hour (road bike) or 1.5 hours (mtb).
may have to settle for 1/2 run - 1/2 walk.

ran 7 miles this afternoon in about an hour, still feeling good, but too
dark to continue.

currently running 5-7 miles 4x week, gym 2x week with an hour of
track work, and one day of rest. wearing a heart monitor on some of the
longer runs, am averaging around 150 bpm, spiking to 165 when the
dogs run after me. yeah, dogs. everyone here has a dog, multiple dogs,
but have never heard of leashes. it's getting better, they know me now,
and the meter-long bamboo rod i run with.

 

[Danny]

Congrats...and we will be cheering you on!

 

[ChouDoufu]

and no, i would never think of running at night here. it's bad enough during the
daytime, with all the tuk-tuks and scooters buzzing by on the wrong side of the
road. no sidewalks, no shoulder, weeds alongside the road not cut back, and the
silly scooter riders think they're doing the moto-gp, hugging the inside lane on
the corners, while texting on their cellphones.

and the other night walking back to my apartment, there's a huge bulky something
blocking my view. what was it in the middle of the road? is it a bird? is it a plane?
NO!! it's a freaking elephant!!! in the freaking roadway!!!!

but at least they had a little flashing red led-light tied to his tail.

 

[Bina]

Chou, that's very interesting about the freaking elephant....but let's get back to that sword wielding pussy cat. Is that your new Halloween outfit?

 

[ChouDoufu]

Chou, that's very interesting about the freaking elephant....but let's get back to that sword wielding pussy cat. Is that your new Halloween outfit?

jeepers, bina, i expected better of you. click the kitty and look closely

 

[Bina]

I see that Kitty has been "customized"....good work.

 

[Mentu]

Chou, I ride instead of run but the one thing my riding buddies always stress is that you ride the event for which you train. And when you tell this story in the future, just how many people will have every encountered an elephant while training? It will make a great tale...Heart surgery, an elephant, and a long run in the same year.

 

[Freddie]

Isn't that Puss n' Boots?
You go man, I'm routing for you

 

[Duffey]

Chou, that's very interesting about the freaking elephant....but let's get back to that sword wielding pussy cat. Is that your new Halloween outfit?

I thought you'd ask about the meter-long rod he runs with, Bina.

Go, Chou, go!

 

[Bina]

I thought you'd ask about the meter-long rod he runs with, Bina.

Go, Chou, go!

To be honest, I did type a post, then thought it was better suited to the "night time" crowd , so I deleted it.

 

[kodi]

Good luck on your training. Are you following a particular training plan to get you there? There are a lot of good ones on the web. I can relate to your training in the heat and humidity. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[SumoRunner]

When I saw CM marathon, it registered in my mind as country music, then I wondered why Garth Brooks would be popular over there.

 

[ChouDoufu]

i've found loads of training schedules, but really i'm starting too late to
follow them properly. as of now i have just over eight weeks, and still
finding it difficult to break 8 miles. it's too hot/too humid or too dark,
so no way to follow the schedules. i'm going to continue 4 long runs
per week (5-8 miles), two one-hour gym sessions w/one session followed
by an hour of track work, and one day to sleep, drink coffee, eat donuts,
watch cartoons. then i december, once it cools to the low 80's, i can
get in some long runs. it's only 26 miles, right?

long runs are averaging 8:30-8:45/mile, track work is sets of 1:30 440's.

and i'm not doing this to break records, just to finish the run. speed is not
an issue. i'm planning on 4 hours (maybe 4-1/2), any slower and i'll
find the slow pace and bouncing too painful. i think a happy 9-minute
mile will be doable. we'll be running from 4am to 8am, so will be much
cooler and less humid, and the water stops will be nice too.

plenty of "country music" cd's available, the covers are usually dramatic
sunsets behind cowboy/horse silhouettes. but then you find the song
index is a list of 60's rock classics......ooooh, music from country america.

 

[tprice54]

ok..so what is the "CM" marathon, for real?? Just a bit if advice, if you can do 2 a day workouts, that total miles for the day is just like one long run in training for a marathon. Good luck!

 

[ChouDoufu]

10-mile run today. 1:27:20, that's like 40% of a marathon, and still felt i
could continue at the end.

finally, after something like 15 years, able to get into pace that could go
forever - assuming there are water stops along the way.

that would be the chiang mai marathon.

 

[kodi]

Good for you on your run. Remember longer runs should be slower than your normal training pace, like maybe 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per mile. The idea is to build the endurance over a longer distance. I love runs where I feel like I could have continued after I finished, means your getting into some fine conditioning. I certainly don't want to deflate your ego but marathons are a totally different animal than a 5K, 10K or even half marathon. It is said it is broken into two halves, the first half is 20 miles, the last half is the last 10K. Continue building up the longer distance every week but about every third week back off a few miles. You have something like 6 more weeks of good training before your taper, use them wisely and good luck. Keep us posted.

 

[Bill B]

You're my inspiration.

I haven't run a marathon in over 25 years. Last one was Las Vegas in 2:54. Developed a chronic groin injury after that and never got back into form. With my new valve and knowledge of how to treat the gron injury, I'm having dreams again. Got some new training shoes yesterday. Not time to start training yet. Only 18 days post-op, but soon enough.

THANKS!

 

[ChouDoufu]

and all marathons are different.

albuquerque doesn't give you a medal when you cross the finish line.
unbelievable! all you get is a stinkin' patch! we need medals!
patches?!! we don' need no stinkin' patches!!

in berlin, the schultheiss brewery had the final water stop about 1/2 km
before the finish. so you grab a cup of water to get you through
the last bits, start to gag, and realize they're handing out beer.

in hamburg, the route goes through the reeperbahn red light district.
many of the working girls are out cheering the runners on, minus tops.

chiang mai is a totally flat route, run starts at 4am due to the 90-degree
heat the day after xmas. from the brochure, we get a medal and TWO
t-shirts. one for running and one for finishing. and a medal.

bill: 2:54 marathon! amazing. i assume you came in first?

 

[Bill B]

and all marathons are different.

bill: 2:54 marathon! amazing. i assume you came in first?

Hardly. I was mid-pack. This was 25 years ago. I was trying to qualify for Boston. This was early 1980s and that time was not good enough. I think qualifying was <2:50. That was the best I did after a few years of running in my mid-30s after not running since high school. I was a little running machine, VERY low fat, 5/8" and 130 lbs (less than 125 after a race), in better shape than in high school. I'm 162 lbs now, but I can see 25-30 lbs going quickly enough. I'm almost 62, so I don't foresee returning to my blistering pace when I was in my 30s. I used to train a less the 5:30 per mile for 10-15 miles a day. Those days are gone, but something more rewading will likely come over the next few post-op months. We'll see how it goes. Just walking 3 miles yesterday wore me out. I'm still anemic from surgery.

 

[ChouDoufu]

although we're entering the dry season and humidity is down, it's still very hot.
all this week is forecast to be 95+ degrees, with a temp of 105 expected friday.