Wrinkled Feet. But They Feel Zippy!

Here are a few more photos from our recent Honolulu Marathon trip. The first is of me showing what the soles of your feet look like after running 26.2 miles while soaking wet. Prune city.

The second one is of two men doing yoga as the sun rose near Diamond Head, oblivious to the thousands of marathoners streaming by them a few hundred yards away. Ommmm!

The third photo is of me at our favorite juice stand in Kauai. Note the Christmas decorations.

Speed Workout: Today was a good running day. I ran my first speed workout - albeit a light one - in months. First, I warmed up for 1.25 miles outside in the cool afternoon air. I ran around the perimeter of my company in the Southern California foothills.

I wasn't near a track, so I jogged into the bare-bones, basement company gym and ran 5 X 800 at 5K pace, or 3:45 (7:30/mile). Rest intervals were a quarter-mile jog. I felt good. Relaxed, even.

I had some zip at the end, so I ran 1 mile at marathon race-pace, in 8:35. Rather, that's the pace I'd like to run at the Carlsbad marathon in four weeks. But I'm not holding my breath.

Honolulu Marathon Photos

I'm back from the land of the Lotus-Eaters. I returned to L.A. from Hawaii late on Saturday night, wedged tightly on the plane against a 6'4" 375-lb. giant. At least I had the aisle seat. He couldn't even put his arms down without knocking out either me or his wife.

But I digress. Here are a few photos of the Honolulu Marathon, courtesy of E. The first is of me taking a break at Mile 22. The second is of me stretching my cramping calves and hamstrings at Mile 24.

The third is of a typical race supporter as we ran through Honolulu neighborhoods. Note the enthusiasm! The fourth is of Japanese race supporters, who cheered madly for their countrymen and women, but fell silent when American runners slogged by.

More Mileage: I ran 14 miles yesterday, a week after the marathon. My legs felt sluggish and heavy. My pace was 9:30/mile. And I've got another 20-miler this weekend. Sigh.

Can I tell you something? I am so SICK of marathon training, which I've been doing, albeit inconsistently and half-assed, since July (!). I am actually dreading the Carlsbad Marathon on January 20. I don't know if I can PR in that race, much less qualify for Boston.

Heck, I'm not even sure I can run a sub-4:00. With all the life changes recently - moving cross-country, buying a house, starting a new job - my heart's just not in it right now.

But I've got five weeks. Okay, actually 4 1/2. How much training can I do in that time? I'll find out.

I'm going to put my head down and gut out the training until then. And after the race? No more long runs over 12 miles until I look towards my fall marathon. I'm thinking Chicago ....

"Donburi!" they screamed ....

Hello from Kauai, the Garden Island of Hawaii. From our hotel room, a 10-second walk to the beach, we can hear the heavy waves crashing against the shore. Right now, I'm sitting in the open-air hotel lobby with a clear view of the ocean and the requisite swaying coconut palm trees. The weather has been alternately monsoon-like and sunny - sometimes all within 15 minutes.

But the beauty is mitigated by a gardener wielding a very loud powertool to trim the verdant greenery around us. I can barely hear myself think, so pardon if this post sounds disjointed.

By the way, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the least crowded and most affordable time to visit Hawaii. Just FYI. You don't have to spend a fortune. We certainly haven't.

Anyway, a bit more about the Honolulu Marathon, which, by the way, experienced some timing errors because of the heavy rains before and during the race and because some runners didn't fasten their timing strips correctly to their shoes. My split times were accurate except for my 10K time, which was reported as around 2 hours (!). Also, the timing mats for the 10K, 13.1 mile points, etc., were based on clock time, not our timing chips. How odd.

Ring, Ring!: I had tucked my cell phone in my back pocket just in case E. needed to reach me (he was meeting me at Mile 22). I also thought that just maybe I would call Jeanne. But she beat me to the punch, and called me after Mile 11.

By this time, I had been thoroughly drenched for about three hours (I left my hotel at 3:30 a.m. for the 5 a.m. start). My clothes stuck to me, my feet were getting blistered, and the race course was boring. Much of it was on a 6-lane highway, with heavy traffic on the other side of a small median. You'd think a race in Hawaii would be more scenic.

I answered the phone, which made some runners stare at me and one person actually yell. Whatever.

"I'm running the f****ing marathon right f******ing now," I said, running steadily. And grinned.

"Oh, my god," said Jeanne. "Okay, bye!"

But I insisted that it was OK, and we talked for a few minutes about her AWESOME experience in the Blue-Gray Half-Marathon in Fredericksburg, Va. I also talked to Susie for a few minutes. She, Jeanne, and David, her beau, PR'ed!

The brief conversation lifted my spirits. It was so nice to hear from friends when you're running a long, wet, and humid race. I also felt like I was running in a foreign country. Almost 2/3 of the runners were Japanese - and most of the race supporters seemed to be Japanese.

"Donburi!" they yelled and waved Japanese flags and banners as we ran by.

Huh? I thought that was a rice dish. Couldn't they just say, "Good Job!"?

Honolulu Marathon Mini-Recap

Well, my good intentions of blogging every other day this month, as I said in my previous post, fell through. Sigh. But I'm here now, albeit a bit tardily.

It's only 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning here in Honolulu. It's still dark. At this time yesterday morning, I was at about Mile 9 of the Honolulu Marathon. I was going to post photos of me on the course at Miles 22 and 23, but my memory card doesn't fit into this laptop. And my attempt to buy a computer cable to upload photos from my camera was unsuccesful. So photos will have to wait until I return home this weekend.

Long story short: Since I was treating the marathon as a long training run rather than a race, I ran the rainy, warm and humid (upper 70's) marathon nice and easy, with a finishing time of 4:24:51. I ran a lot of mile pace 9:40's and 9:30's, and I even had a 10:00 mile or two at the beginning because of the crowds.

Towards the end, when E. met me at Mile 22 to run with me, I stopped to stretch and chat several times, take photos, and to drink the Vitamin Water he gave me. That slowed down my overall time. But I did try to push it at the end, running the last 2.2 miles at an 8:17/mile pace.

Deluge: It has been raining in Honolulu for the past several days, and some city streets are flooded. It had stopped raining the day before the race, but we weren't so lucky race day. It started raining in the wee hours, and before I even ran one step of the race, I was drenched.

Picture this: Get in your running clothes, put on your race bib, and lace up your shoes. Get in the shower and turn it on full blast. Stand under the lukewarm spray for 10 minutes. Fully soaked?

Good. Now, run a marathon.

The skies opened up and the rain fell from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m., after the race was underway for an hour (yes, we started at 5 a.m.). I could feel the water squish in between my toes, and because my shoes and socks were so soaked, my feet slid forward at every step and banged against the top of my shoes. Not pleasant.

At Mile 3, I saw a runner actually carry an umbrella in a vain attempt to keep dry. At one point, it rained so hard that the raindrops hurt. And because it was wet, the streets were very slippery with oil, and some were partially flooded. I saw at least two runners fall in the first few miles because of that.

Okay. More later. The sun is starting to rise.

Upcoming: Talking to Jeanne and Susie via cell phone around Mile 11 and the quirkiness of Japanese runners.