The Gillens.net

I had been accepted this spring into another TRIO training program, this time in New York! I didn’t want to pass up the offer, even though I had just barrelled through finals, gone to San Diego, and am planning to leave for San Francisco in a couple days for David’s race, since NYC can be a great location to mix work with some fun.

The training took place at The Roosevelt Hotel on 45th and Madison Ave. Theater, shopping, Grand Central Terminal, and Central Park were all within reach. I’m not a big shopper, but I did have a blast strolling through FAO Schwarz picking out cute items for Molly and gawking at $7,500 hand-carved rocking horses. (Sorry, Molly, no rocking horses from FAO for you!) I spent the majority of my free time, though, either looking for new places to dine or running at Central Park. I did a short 4-miler on Thursday, followed by a 10-miler on Saturday. Within those two runs, I expect I dodged roughly 1,000 bikers, 5,000 other runners, 900 strollers, 700 dogs, 8,000 walkers, 20 horse carriages, and a few, unexpected taxis. I didn’t get an exact count, but that felt about right. Wow! Am I blessed to live in Flower Mound where a “busy” running day means I shared the side walk with 4-6 others, or what?

Of course the highlight of the trip was taking a short visit on Friday to West Point to see Clint. I was easily able to catch a train at Grand Central to Garrison. A couple of taxis were waiting to cart passengers to WP. Knowing that the next day was graduation, I didn’t completely realize how busy post would be the day before. I thought I had left the mayhem and people in Manhattan…but I guess they followed me! Clint and I met up at Thayer Statue and headed to find his pick-up and get away from the crowds. We took a short drive to see the new rugy complex, and I did manage to get a couple of pictures. (It’s my habit to forget to take pictures.) I offered to treat Clint to lunch, and the thing he had his stomach set on was chicken fried steak at Chili’s. So, we went. It was a great opportunity to spend a couple hours visiting about all kinds of things - the war, family, his coursework, and, of course, a few well-animated stories about various “crazy characters” he’s encountered lately.

Although the trip to WP as short, it was excedingly worthwhile! It was a tough realization afterwards, though, that not only was this one of the first times in the past few years that I had this much alone-time with my brother to talk, but it may have been the last before he graduates. I will definitely try to make it a priority to get out at least one more time to share some good conversation time before he is assigned to a mission.

More pictures here.

After a long and tough semester, Sarah had earned a well deserved vacation and we decided to go visit my sister in San Diego. Cyndee had to work on Friday, so Sarah and I went to our favorite attraction, the Zoo! We absolutely love this place, especially the hippos and the polar bear exhibits. There is something really cool about seeing such majestic and large animals underwater and up close! The elephants and sea lion show were also a lot of fun. After the zoo but before Cyndee got home, Sarah and I drove to La Jolla cove so I could get in a practice ocean swim in preparation for my Escape From Alcatraz triathlon in 3 weeks. After that, the three of us grabbed some burgers and then went to see Spiderman 3.

After a Saturday morning run, we went to eat a really popular brunch place called the Hash House. We then drove down to the Harbor and Seaport Village to see a street performers competition. The performers themselves were not as interesting as simply the scenery down there. We then went the Birch Aquarium and “Children’s Pool” in La Jolla. Children’s Pool is this small protected cove where a whole bunch of harbor seals lay around and play. After another nice meal at 60s diner called Corvettes, we just chilled at Cyndee’s place. It was a great, albeit short vacation.

More photos here.

My sister, Cyndee, finally moved out of the state about 2 months ago, and this weekend was the first time I had an opportunity to go visit her. She found a really nice 2 bedroom apartment in just a couple of days of searching. It’s in a great location near Balboa Park, the zoo, and couple of major highways. Her commute is about 30 minutes which seems long for her, but it pretty reasonable for SoCal. In short, she’s done quite well for herself, and I’m really proud of her.

I drove her to work on Friday AM, and then I drove to Del Mar and walked around the beach bluffs. It was very pleasant despite the overcast skies. It was my first time to see the California coast since I used to live in the San Jose, and it brought back found memories of many hike/jogs along the coast. I then drove up to Encinitas and walked around a little more and saw some high quality beach volleyball play at 9:30am and I thought that was really cool and something you’d never see in Texas. At 10am, the triathlon shop, Nytro, opened up, and I went it. It had a lot of very nice and top of the line tri bikes, but it was quite a bit smaller than Richardson Bike Mart. After the tri shop, I drove south to Torrey Pines State Reserve and went on a really scenic hour long hike along the coastal bluffs again. After grabbing a little to eat, I drove back east to the Poway area, and went on a nice 2 hour trail run that had incredible views of the Poway and Ramona Lakes nestled up high in the mountains. It was definitely one of my most scenic trail runs.

I picked Cyndee up and drove to La Jolla Cove. Cyndee and we threw the frisbee around for little bit, and then I changed into my wetsuit and prepared for my first ocean swim ever! I was a little nervous, but honestly, I was more excited because the ocean wasn’t that rough and they were plenty of people out there swimming, so I was pretty confident that I’d be safe.

After diving in, the very first thing I noticed was how cold the water was on my face and forehead. It was a very sharp and intense pain right on the top of the head as it moved through the water. I was really worried about this, but thankfully it went away after about 4-5 minutes, and after that it didn’t even really feel that cold. We regrouped at the quarter mile buoy and it was nice to rest for a few minutes and chat with the other triathletes. I was shocked how little I had to tread water b/c the wetsuit and the salt water. It was really quite pleasant. Just hanging out there in the middle of La Jolla cove, treading water was really cool and one of the highlights of my trip.

On Saturday, Cyndee and I slept in and then walked 100 feet to a really nice coffee shop and had great Californian breakfast. We then drove to Balboa Park and walked around. We went to the photography museum which turned out to be really small and little disappointing.

Balboa Park in and of itself is the best attraction. We had great time just walking around. We then drove over to Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument which had incredible view of the entire San Diego area. This was definitely another highlight of my trip. I absolutely love walking around areas with scenic overlooks of a city!

On Sunday, I drove to Del Mar again and swam with the San Diego Triathlon Club again. This swim was quite different however because the surf was really up. Some of the breakers were about 8-10 feet, and swimming out past them proved quite difficult, and some of the swimmers didn’t make it. I just tried to dive under them, but they seemed to just keep coming and coming, and after what felt like 15 minutes (4-5 minutes real time) I was still battling them. I knew wasn’t make much ground, but I kept on pushing and eventually I made it past them. I was still pretty rough past the breakers, but this was good practice for the Alcatraz swim b/c it’ll be rough there too. Getting back in thru the waves was just as difficult. They’d crash over your head and you’d get washed around for few seconds. Then I’d try to come up and swim, but then the undertow from the wave seemed to push me back out to sea! It really felt like I was caught in the trough of the waves, getting pummeled from one side and sucked out by the undertow on the other side. Again, I knew I wasn’t making much progress on getting to shore, and I almost started panicking and I wanted to swim frantically against the undertow, but somehow I remained calm and I just thought that I’m not in a real hurry, and I’ll get to shore eventually. Just relax. You’ll make it! I felt much better once I relaxed, and I did in fact make it to shore! One the triathletes put a GPS unit in his swim cap and it measured 1.07 miles. Afterwards, some of the locals said that it was a unusually rough day for the area!

More pictures here.

I had kind of put races on the back-burner since classes, work, study, and home-life have kept me very busy this spring, but it was finally time to get out and get a couple more races (and, hopefully, awards) under my belt before I move into a new age group. Over the past few years, I have gotten comfortable being in a fairly non-competitive age group (women 25-29). However, turning thirty next year means I move into one of the most competitive age groups for women - ages 30-34. I’m hoping to learn a lot about getting stronger and faster from this new group…but it will be humbling.

So, the Big D Texas Half came up as a race to compete in because a fellow-student, Adeil Sanchez, from my Chemistry I class was running in it, too. It was his first, large organized road race, and I thought it’d be great to see him on the course and at the finish line.

David drove me to the Fair Park grounds, and I’m very glad he was there. Because of a very sad, unfortunate car accident that killed one woman and injured another man on I-30 only two hours before the race start, the highway was shut down. David did a great job, though, navigating through trucks and other cars to get me to the start on time.

The race start was delayed 15 minutes because of the highway conditions, but David and I visited, walked around, and stretched until the event started. And at 7:45 a.m, we were off!

I felt really good the entire race, slowing down to take Gatorade every now and then and to stretch a little. I conserved enough energy for the end, and I really tried to keep a consistent pace throughout. Early on, though, somewhere around mile 3, Adeil, the “rookie,” flew past me on a down-hill, looking very focused and strong. After another 6 or 7 miles, he was pretty much out of eye-shot!

The 13 miles really sailed by, and I’m always surprised at the end of a half marathon how quickly they really seem to go. At the finish line, I heard David cheering for me and saw him snapping photos. I also heard the announcer call my name. For probably the first time ever, I actually looked over at the clock to see what my finishing time was. I remember it reading something close to 1:43:05.  Unofficially, though, I was listed as second in my age group out of 148, and I received a medal at the awards ceremony.

Adeil finished 10th in his age group (males 20-24), with a time around 1:40:38. David and I look forward to seeing him at more events.

I really enjoyed this race for a number of reasons. 1) It’s just the right size to not feel overwhelmed by people before, during, and after the race. 2) The awards for best aid station really seemed to get the volunteers motivated and energized when we came through. 3) The Fair grounds are a great venue because of plenty of parking, lots of space to walk around, and plenty fried snickers bars and hot dogs. 4) The announcer/director, whose name we still don’t know, is a genuinely nice man and very encouraging to the runners at all his events we’ve attended.

You can see photos here.

1. Pre Race Routine: Ryan Loehding was kind of enough to give me a ride to the race so my wife wouldn’t have to drive out there twice. I picked up my packet and mingled with a few other runners, trying not to look nervous. I tightened up my laces, but not too tight as I knew my feet would swell. Suzi, the RD, made some brief comments about how the course will be longer than last year b/c GPS measurements indicated that it was short. She kept the speech short and before I was really mentally ready, we were off.
2. The Race: Since I’ve gotten so used to running with my Polar S625X that measures my speed, distance, and HR, I always keep a pretty close eye on those metrics. Today would be different however. I didn’t wear my foot pod, so I wouldn’t know my speed or distance, and I decided that I didn’t even want to know the cumulative time or time of day. I didn’t want to know time info. I didn’t want to think about things like how I had run 4-5 hours already and I have another 4-5 hour to go! So I set my watch to display altitude, calories (meaningless), HR, and temperature. This was g good decision b/c I remember not even thinking about time or distance until I saw a 20 mile marker at one of the aid station and I thought: “Damn! That seemed to go quick”. On most days, 20 miles is a long ways, but today it was just a warm up. It reminded me of my first ever weekend in Vegas, and how quick a $100 could disappear at a blackjack table, and how all of a sudden $60 and $80 didn’t seem like very much money! Conclusion: The mind has an amazing ability to make measurements of quantity take on different meanings in extreme environments. Today, I was glad that I was mentally strong, that is until the WHITE loop…

   

   This third loop, miles 25-39 started out fine. I felt a little rejuvenated after re-supplying at the main aid station, but things would soon deteriorate. It was afternoon now, and it was starting to heat up. The refreshing breezes seemed to stop, and the miles seemed to tick by slower and slower. The sand was deepest on this loop and it was the toughest part of the course mentally. It just seemed to go on and on, like I’d never get back to camp! Plus, it was tough mentally to think that even when I did get back, I still had another 10 miles to go. Fewwwww…

   To make matters worse, I was really, really sick of my “Gillenade”, a home made concoction of maltodextrin, sugar, salt, and Kool-aide flavoring. I made it way to salty. (Maybe that’s why my shirt ended up being so crusty…)

   

   I was so sick of drinking it every 3:45 when I programmed my watch to beep to remind me to drink. I tried watering it down, but it didn’t help much, so towards the end of this lap, I switched to just water. I’d tried to take gels and salt tablets to keep up with the calories and sodium. Overall, it ended up working, and I never got dehydrated!

   It felt really good to finish the white loop and I again got a little boost from leaving the camp a final time. The next time I came back to this camp, I’d be an ultra-marathoner!!! Although not as tough mentally as the white, the red loop was rough. My ankles were killing me, and stopped to walk off and on. And when I was running it was probably at a 13+ mile pace. But I was moving. RFM: Relentless Forward Motion. Just keep moving , David. You’ll get there!At about mile 43, 3 hikers passed me going the other way, and they asked me if there was a lake ahead. I said, “A Lake?” I had to really stop and think about it, and I was shocked at how hard it was to recall what I had just seen 5-10 minutes ago. How hard it was to think about anything other than running! I literally said, “There might be a small one, but I don’t know. I’ve run 43 miles, and I can’t think that straight!” A minute later, I was laughing at myself!!From that point on the race was fun. I remember cracking a rare smile at the 45.8 aid station b/c I knew that I could make it another 4.2 miles! Then I was again overjoyed to be turn right towards the finish at the red/white split that I had seen over 2 hours ago. But the happiest moment of the whole race was at about 49.5 when I saw my wife and one of our dogs at the top of the hill. I knew I was so close to finishing and to be able to jog the last half mile with them meant the world to me. All pain vanished as I rounded the last corner of the race. All the wonderful volunteers, other races, NTTR members, and everyone there at camp cheered as I finished. It was great a moment.

3. Post Race: I mentioned to Suzi that this was my first ultra, and she was so kind as to give me free pair of Dirty Girl gaitors which is great b/c I don’t have a pair! I walked around a little, grabbed a sandwich, and then sat down for the first time in about 11 hours!

   

   Man, it was hard getting into the chair, but it felt so good once I was there. My wife, Sarah, is the best. She brought our dogs to congratulate me, and she really took care of me every time I needed anything.

4. Heart Rate Info: 161 average heart rate over 50 miles! This is top of zone 2 for me. My aerobic threshold is around 163-4. I was very surprised to see it so high because I had run on these same sandy trails about a month ago and my avg. HR was in the upper 140s! I think it was about 20-30 degrees warmer on race day that it was during my 29 miler training run, and I’m sure this, along with race day adrenaline, caused my higher HR.
5. Course Info: 4 separate loops (blue, yellow, white, and red) The first loop (blue) was not sandy at all and generally very pleasant. The white and red loops definitely had some very deep sandy sections that were quite tough. The whole course is relative flat though. This race was really well organized and all the volunteers were great and always filled my water bottle at every aid station. This was a great race for my first 50.
6. Result Info: I ended up being 15th out of 45. Not too bad! More photos here.