Click the splits to see the Garmin Connect file

My training over the winter was hit or miss (mostly miss) and I wound up gaining another 5 pounds on top of the 20 I’d gained over the summer, so when the Yakima River Canyon Marathon came along on April 6th I was in no real way ready for it. The weather was quite a bit friendlier than it had been last year. Still a chillystart, but no sleet.   I’m not going to go into a full out race report on it, but suffice it to say, it didn’t go as I hoped.  I had some stomach/intestinal issues that cost me 20 minutes or so and my lack of effective training led to my legs going pretty much dead around mile 19.  I wound up finishing in 4:25:07, my absolute worst marathon time ever.  Part of me wanted to beat myself up for it, but I knew that wouldn’t do me any good.  Instead, I took away the fact that is a great time for a 215 lb man, and recommitted myself to my training with Portland in mind for October.

2 days later (Monday April 8th) I noticed on Twitter that ontherunevents.com (@ontherunevents on Twitter)  was giving away 2 free Tacoma City Marathon  entries.  I was planning to run a 20 miler on the weekend of May 5th anyway so why not see if I can make it 26.2 for free.  I didn’t make any changes to my mileage build up since I wasn’t expecting to win the contest, but then on April 18th I woke up to this in my inbox:

And I realized I was going to be running a marathon in just over 2 weeks!  I decided to taper only minimally before the race as I wanted to maximize my training time (probably not the brightest idea).

My mileage in between the 2 races looked like this

On the 0 week I ran 7.5 mile easy runs on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, rested on Wednesday, another 7.5 on Thursday, rest Friday and a very easy 2 miler on Saturday. Not an optimum taper schedule at all but on Sunday morning I was feeling well rested and ready to go, and had decided on a goal of 3:40.

I got up around 4:30 am (too damn early!), ate a English Muffin with Peanut Butter (which will probably now be my go to race day breakfast) and dragged my lovely fiancee Alysha out to the car to drive from Seattle to Tacoma.  A friend (the quite awesome Tori Klementsen) picked up my packet for me, and I needed to meet her and catch the 6:00 am shuttle to the start.   I made it to Tacoma, picked up my packet/race bib from a friend of Tori’s as she was taking the early start due to the predicted heat, bid Alysha goodbye (The starting line was across a toll bridge, and she was tired, so she napped in the car for most of the race) and got on the shuttle to the start.

Course Map

The shuttle took a good 20 minutes or so to get from downtown Tacoma (at the finish line) to the starting line at the Tacoma Narrows Airport in Gig Harbor.  It was a beautiful morning and there were great views of the Olympics over the runway, but it was a tad cold so everyone was huddled in a hanger (if they weren’t in line for the Porta-Potty).

I ran in to my mom’s friend/coworker Mike, we chatted about our time goals, and before I knew it it was time to start.  I went to find the Marathon Maniac who was serving as the 3:40:00 pacer but there were no signs to tell who was pacing what pace.  We set off and I paced myself at about 8’20″ since that would get me in around 3:40.  Luckily I had my podcast on quiet and picked up from the conversation around me that the guy in the pink running skirt was the pacer I was looking for, Terry S.  Apparently Runningskirts.com was sponsoring the pacers, and so all of the pacers had on the skirts regardless of gender.  The signs it turns out had been left at the hotel, but would be picked up around mile 4.  I turned up my headphones and just enjoyed the run for the next few miles, especially the views on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Click on the image to view the whole Garmin record

I had to use the bathroom during mile 5 and spent the next mile or so catching up (by which point Terry had the 3:40 sign and was easy to find) and when I caught up I was with the folks I’d be spending the race with.  I’d never run with a pace group the whole way before and it was nice.  I had good conversation with the 3 Marathon Maniacs in the group: Terry, Dave and Andy.  (Side note: if you don’t know what a Marathon Maniac is, they’re a club for hard core marathoners, the minimum to join is running 3 marathons in 90 days or 2 in 16 days).  It was a beautiful if mostly uneventful race.  We made great time during the first half and I would’ve probably wound up with a positive split if it wasn’t for my bathroom break during mile 13 (I spent 2 miles catching up after that one since there was a line for the Porta-Potty).  Our pace group stuck together through the beautiful views in Point Defiance Park, but we lost one (Andy) at mile 18, 3:40 was 5 minutes ahead of his PR, so he decided he was going to take it easy from that point on.

At around mile 20 or so, Dave and I pulled ahead of the rest of our group, not the best idea ever considering the next 6.2 miles were absolutely shade free.  Luckily they were also relatively flat, so although we were cooking, we’d banked enough time that we didn’t have to push too hard, and good just enjoy the run along Puget Sound with Mt. Rainier straight ahead. We ran past downtown, up over the railroad tracks and at around mile 25 turned up the hill to downtown.  Most of the last mile was a straight shot down Pacific Ave, past cheering people, including right before the last turn, my soon to be (May 19th!) wife.  As soon as I crossed the 26 mile mark I made the decision I was gonna go all out the next .2 mile and practically sprinted through the finish to end in 3:37:03.  Nearly 50 minutes off of my time at Yakima 29 days before, and 3 minutes better than my goal.  I got my medal, a banana, and an orange, shook hands and got pictures with Dave and Terry and I was on my way home.

I learned quite a bit from this month: I can still set a goal and achieve it, running with other people is fun, not a hassle, I want to be a Marathon Maniac! (might be running Seattle Rock n’ Roll 6/22 to qualify, depending on post wedding finances) and as Terry put it at one point during Tacoma “Wow, you are a strong runner”.  I am a strong runner, and as I lose this weight (20 pounds left to lose!) I will become even stronger, and I will be running in Boston in 2015!

2012 Goals

Going into 2012 I had 3 main running goals, run 2000 Miles, run 2 marathons, and Qualify for the 2013 or 2014 Boston Marathon. How did I do when it comes to those goals?

Run 2000 Miles

I blew this goal out of the water! In 2012 over 327 runs, I ran 2446.78 miles in 333 hrs 23 minutes 42 seconds.  I spent nearly 14 days running at an average pace of 8’10″ a mile. I ran an average of 6.2 times a week, with an average run being 7.48 miles. With my lapsed training during the summer, I’m amazed that I came out this successful.

Run 2 Marathons

This goal was also a success, I ran the Yakima River Canyon Marathon in 3:10:46 on March 31 (Race Report) and the Portland Marathon in 3:47:54 (Race Report).

Qualify for the 2013 or 2014 Boston Marathon

This goal, I did not achieve.  As I’m in the 18-34 age bracket I needed to complete a 3:05:00 or below to qualify, and my best time was  5’46″ short of it. If I hadn’t lapsed in training during the summer I think this was a completely achievable goal.

Lessons

2 out of 3 isn’t bad, so I’m not going to castigate myself or say this year was a failure, because it wasn’t, it was a great year (Not just for running, I got engaged to my best friend and love of my life Alysha!).  Sure I came up short on one of my goals for the year, but in failing that goal, I learned some important lessons that I’ll be able to share here, and with my clients in the future once my training business is off the ground.

Lesson 1: You can’t take success for granted.

After my great time at the Yakima River Canyon Marathon I was absolutely certain I would BQ at Portland.  I worked my butt off  in April (232 miles including my reverse taper) and May (281 miles), but then got busy rehearsing for Henry VIII and let my training lag.  I took for granted that my prior training would carry me through, so I missed runs for the next 2.5 months (including long runs and entire weeks off) and didn’t adjust my calorie intake accordingly. I gained 15 pounds over the course of those 2.5 months, and my speed dropped drastically.  By the time Portland came around I was in no way ready. To prevent this, I’m going to be better about tracking my runs, and my calorie intake. Even when a goal seems easily within reach, that doesn’t mean not to work hard for it.

Lesson 2: Consistency is key.

I was horribly inconsistent this year.  Taking an extra day off because you’re pushing too hard or injured is one thing. Missing multiple runs in a week for no other reason than I’m busy and too lazy to get up early or stay up late is another, and absolutely not okay.  I’ve made a commitment to myself to be as healthy and fit as I can be, and missing workouts all summer didn’t honor that commitment.  If I miss a run, I have a rest day built into my schedule each week, I need to use that rest day to make it up.  If I stay consistent, I will achieve my goals.

Lesson 3: Don’t let failure beget failure.

You’d think I’d have learned this before now, and I have, but this is something I tend to forget.  If I make a misstep, it doesn’t mean I’m going to make another one.  Too often I’ve said “Oh, I slept in too long, I can’t go for my run…” when I went to bed late, and snoozed my alarm. 98% of the time, I still have plenty of time for a shorter run.  A shorter run is better than no run. If I’m groggy from not running, that doesn’t mean I lack the self control to avoid over snacking.

2013 Goals

With the lessons I learned in 2012, I’ve got 5 running/fitness goals for 2013

1. Run 2500 miles
2. Run (at least) 3 Marathons
3. Qualify for the 2014 or 2015 Boston Marathon (hopefully both!)
4. Get to and maintain my goal weight of 180
5. Run a sub 19 minute 5k again.

To achieve these goals I’m going to focus on the lessons I learned last year, log my meals and runs everyday, and hold myself accountable more publicly by blogging at least once a week. 

Now a couple questions for you, dear reader.  How did you do compared to your goals in 2012? and What are your goals for 2013?

I think a BQ time is going to be achievable as long as I stick to a training plan that’s vigorous enough to challenge me, but allows for active recovery.

Currently I’m working on building an aerobic base since most plans I’ve looked at don’t start until 18 weeks out from the race.  That puts my “plan start date” out on Dec 2nd for the April 6th race.  My plan for the next this week and the next 2 looks something like this:

11/11-11/17

11/18-11/24

11/26-12/1

That puts me at 77 miles that week, which means that the  Hal Higdon Advanced 2 I did the last time I stuck to a plan starts too light on mileage for me (approximately 30 -35 miles) if I do it as published.  I also don’t know if I like the 70-85 mile plan from Advanced Marathoning because it doesn’t have a planned rest/cross training day, it’s 7 days a week of running, which I’ve never done before.  I feel like I’d be courting injury by not planning rest days at least once every 2 weeks (if not once a week as I’ve been doing).

I know I need an actual training plan. The 2 times I’ve “winged it” I haven’t been happy with my time.

I know I have the experience to craft my own training plan.  I’ve been running on and off since I was 18,  I’ve ran over 1700 miles a year every year since 2009 and I’ve run 3 marathons now.

I know the workouts in the Higdon Plan work for me.  When I followed that plan last winter, I dropped from 3:32’00″ at Portland to 3:10’36″ in Yakima.   I cut off almost 21 and a half minutes in under 6 months. 

Over the next 2 weeks I ‘m going to modify the Hal Higdon Advanced 2 plan using what I learned reading Advanced Marathoning, and my current aerobic base to create a challenging plan with high enough mileage, plenty of speedwork and enough rest to get me to my goal time (Sub 3:05) injury free.  I’ll post it out here once I have it worked out along with my thought process.

This looks daunting if you consider my most recent race time of 3:47’54″ but from my current easy runs I think that time is an anomaly mainly caused by a mental failure. I don’t think this is really a (near impossible) journey of dropping nearly 45 minutes (~1’43″ a mile) off my time. Realistically I’m starting from about the same point I was at after Portland in 2011 if not a little stronger/faster.   Now I just need to prove it by getting miles under my belt.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what’s worked for you after bonking/DNFing/coming up way short and what you think about my potential for success.

We interrupt our regular, mostly running and fitness related programming for some shameless promotion of my current theatre project, opening this weekend!

Cardenio  |  Directed by Tony Driscoll

THREE WEEKS ONLY! November 2-17, 2012 - Thursdays through Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Center Theatre at the Armory at Seattle Center  (formerly the Center House Theatre)

RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED! RESERVE YOUR SEATS NOW!

FREE - donations accepted.

SHOW PROGRAM (PDF – opens in new window)

Details after the break

GreenStage’s 2012 “Hard Bard” production is Cardenio, by Shakespeare (with a little help from his friends… his dead friends.) Directed by Tony Driscoll.

It’s a very grave love story - A Tyrant’s cold blooded scheme to attain love is stalled when the Lady he longs for makes a grave attempt to escape his lustful desires. Gruesome and absurd acts ofrevenge, murder, suicide, lust, grave robbing, and necrophilia, make this romantic tragedy a Hard Bard experience you will never forget.

Scholars continue to debate whether Cardenio is the work of Shakespeare (and John Fletcher) or Thomas Middleton, but one thing is certain: THERE WILL BE BLOOD.

CAST

• Tyrant: Aaron Allshouse
• Leonella: Meredith Armstrong
• Bellarius: Geb Brown
• Anselmus: Anthony Duckett
• Govianus (Cardenio): Matthew Gilbert
• Blood wench: Julia Griffin
• Memphonius: William Li
• Votarius: Tyler Lockwood
• Musician/ensemble: Mark McQuinn
• Wife: Amelia Meckler
• Helvetius: Michael Ramquist
• Sophonirus: Eli Simons
• Lady: Nicole Vernon

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.    - Winston Churchill

After a too long hiatus from blogging, I’m back.  Ideally I’ll get back to having 2-4 posts a week, but a minimum of 1.   My training kind of went out the window due to a busy busy summer and I didn’t achieve my goal of breaking 3 hours at the Portland Marathon… I didn’t even come near it.  Despite my self-abuse for the first few days afterward, it was not a failure, it was a learning experience.  It has never been clearer to me that a marathon is just as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one.

I knew going in I was under-prepared,  I’d gained 10lbs due to not adjusting my eating habits to the weaker training and I just didn’t have enough quality miles leading up to the race.  I kept trying to make myself believe I could achieve the 3 hour goal because I had so many miles under my belt over the last few years, but part of me just wouldn’t buy in, and that’s the part I listened to sadly.

As I lined up to start the race I debated starting with the 3:00 pacer, but decided that one wasn’t in the cards, so I lined up on 3:05 (Deciding to still shoot for a BQ and new PR) and soon we were off.   I kept up fine through the first 6 miles or so,  had to take a bathroom break so rushed ahead and came back out with them still in sight.  But doubt was beginning to creep in, looking at my heart rate on my GPS earlier I’d begun thinking that my HR was too high, that I wouldn’t be able to keep this up.   By 10 miles I’d slowed down and I was experiencing some GI issues… another bathroom break.  I came out with the 3:10 pacer in site, I could still achieve close to or better than my marathon PR (3:10’46″) if I kept up.  But then I hit mile 15 and yet another bathroom break and something snapped, I didn’t realize it but I gave up.

I was now walking segments rather than running, thinking in was just too weak to  keep pace.  Looking at my GPS Record from the race that isn’t  what happened.  What happened was:  my heart rate stayed relatively low throughout the rest of the race, I just wasn’t trying my hardest.   I’m glad to say that even though I lost my effort, never once did I consider stopping and taking a DNF, I wasn’t injured, I wasn’t ill, I was just scared of failure so I let myself fail, and that’s okay.  I still crossed that finish line, sure it was 45+ minutes behind my goal, but 3:48 is still faster than many people will ever do a marathon.

Lesson learned: If you’ve got an extraordinary goal like a 3 hour marathon, you have to work extraordinarily hard at it, and you’ve got to believe you can do it.   I’ve got nearly 6 months to prepare for the 2013 Yakima River Canyon Marathon, and I can break 3 hours if I put my mind and body to it.  I’m back into base building now and feeling great.

Pistorious taking part in the Landsmót ungmennafélags Íslands in Kópavogur, Iceland, the largest sporting event in Iceland.
(C) Elvar Pálsson

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Alison and Tim Delgado and their inspiring journey, saying that it would be the start of a series about people who inspire me.  There are a plethora of stories I’ve read in Runner’s World and elsewhere that I could draw on, but a picture I saw on Reddit compelled me to write about  South African Olympian and double amputee Oscar Pistorius.Now, I could do the thing that most “able-bodied” folks do when it comes to people with a “disability,” which is treat them as if they are either pitiable for succumbing to their state or a saint for overcoming it, but the fact is they are just people dealt a certain deck of cards and dealing with that deck.  Disabled folks deserve the same respect and love that everyone else does, and shouldn’t be treated as anything less than, or more than, a human being.  Oscar Pistorius is an athlete and human being that inspires me, pushing himself to compete with world-class athletes that have a distinct advantage over him: intact legs.

Oscar Pistorius was born on November 22nd, 1986 without a fully formed fibula in either leg and had the lower quarter or so of his leg amputated before he was 1 year old.  Despite this,

Supported and encouraged by his sports-mad family, Oscar lived an active life which led to him becoming a keen sportsman during his school years. Whatever the sport, Oscar played it, with his main focus being water polo and rugby in secondary school. He also played cricket, tennis, took part in triathlon and Olympic club wrestling and was an enthusiastic boxer. (OscarPistorius.com)

The Flex-Foot Cheetahs that Pistorius runs in

He even played water polo and tennis at the provincial level (the equivalent of all-state here in the US) until he shattered his knee playing rugby in June 2003.  As his rehabilitation progressed, he started running on the advice of his doctor.  In January 2004 he started running on the track and ran (and won) his first 100m race in 11.72 seconds, almost a half second faster than the Paralympic World Record of 12.2 seconds.  In June 2004 he was given his first pair of the iconic Össur Flex-Foot Cheetahs and 2 months later competed in his first Paralympic games.

At the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, Pistorius ran to victory (and a Paralympic world record) with a 21.97s 200m, and proceeded to set his sights on competing with “able-bodied” runners.  In March 2005 he placed 6th in the South African Championships. He continued to garner accolades in the Paralympics and in July 2007 ran his first international “able-bodied”  race in Rome at the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) Golden Gala and placed 2nd in the “B”400m.   This led to him being invited to take part in a series of tests at Cologne Sports University, where Dr. Peter Brüggemann determined that the prosthetics Pistorius wore gave him an unfair advantage over “able-bodied” runners, using 25% less oxygen than his competitors (See this BBC article for more detail).   After this determination the IAAF voted  to ban Pistorius from competing in standard competition. In May 2008 the decision was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, ruling that the evidence didn’t show that he had any actual advantage:

Dr. Brüggemann only tested Pistorius’s biomechanics at full-speed when he was running in a straight line (unlike a real 400-metre race), that the report did not consider the disadvantages that Pistorius suffers at the start and acceleration phases of the race, and that overall there was no evidence that he had any net advantage over able-bodied athletes.

This meant that he was eligible to qualify for the Olympics in 2008, but he failed to meet the “A” qualifying time in the 400m for 2008 so did not make it as an individual  nor was he selected for the relay.  This didn’t discourage Pistorius tough, instead he turned his eyes toward London:

“London 2012 is a more realistic target,” [Pistorius] said … “Sprinters usually reach their peak between 26 and 29. I will be 25 in London and I’ll also have two, three years’ preparation.” – Guardian.co.uk

He trained hard the next few years and qualified for London 2012.  Although he didn’t make it to the finals for the individual 400m, he’ll be running the 3rd leg of the 4x400m relay for South Africa tonight in London (It’s already been run, but I’m waiting for them to show it on NBC)  meaning that he has a chance to medal.

This man would not let anything keep him from achieving his dream of being a world-class athlete.  He didn’t have legs below the shin, so he got athletic prostheses; the IAAF said he had an advantage because of them, he challenged that ruling and won; he didn’t have good enough times to qualify, so he worked his ass off to become the athlete he knew he could be.  Oscar Pistorius is proof that you can achieve anything you set out to do!

As I promised yesterday, I’m getting back on track with the Week in Review posts today.  I think they’re one of the best ways I have for publicly holding myself accountable to my goal.   Since I was coming off such an inconsistent period with the last 2 months I didn’t want to just rocket back up to 70 and exhaust myself, so I set a goal of 5 days and 50 miles with hopefully one or two 2-a-days.

Now for this week:

Sunday:

Run 1: 8.38 miles in 1:11, a reasonable Sunday morning run followed by about 30 minutes of upper body lifts.

Run 2 Rest: Alysha and I got dressed for my run/the gym and then promptly fell asleep after we got home from the Henry VIII matinée. By the time we got up it was just too late to get a run in, and we were ridiculously tired anyhow.

Monday:

Morning Evening Run: I slept in again, but I wasn’t going to let this week be another false restart, so I did my workout in the evening 9.39 miles in 1:13. I ran 5×800 intervals at about a 6’30″ pace in the middle, would’ve liked to have been faster but it was pushing 80 degrees and didn’t want to burn out.

Tuesday:

Run 1: Slow 8.37 Miles, took 1:14, my legs were a little stiff from having a full on workout run less than 12 hours before, but it felt good to be up early.

Run 2: 5.98 miles in 50 minutes, easy run at Greenlake. I love running at Greenlake this time of year, seeing all the people out there challenging themselves. From the obese lady pushing her also-obese bulldog in a weird stroller thing, to the High School runners getting in some summer workouts, it’s inspiring.

Wednesday:

Run Rest: Slept in and had plans to see a play that night, figured my body needed the rest so didn’t sweat it , I’d accounted for 1 extra day of rest and this was when I needed it.

Thursday:

Rest: Usual rest day walk to the Seattle Waterfront (4 miles more or less)

Friday:

Treadmill Dreadmill Run: I am not a fan of running on the treadmill, but I didn’t have much of a choice, there was a thunderstorm going when I got out of bed.   I schlepped myself over to the gym and did my tempo run on the treadmill 10 minute warmup, 35 minutes at 6’45″ and then a 10 minute cooldown.  Treadmill work feels harder than outdoor work, but I’m betting it’s just that I’m not enjoying myself as much.

Saturday:

Long Run: 14.48 miles in 2:05, certainly not my best long run, but I was happy to get miles in.  I had a callback  early (9 am) and a matinée show (2 pm call) so I was expecting to only have time for 10 miles, but I got done with the callback well before I expected to (Expected to be done 11:30 and got done at 10:30) so I got some extra miles in.  I think i may need to buy a new hydration belt soon for summer training, the one   24 oz bottle just doesn’t keep me hydrated enough on long runs in 70+ degree heat.

Over all this week was great, I met my goal of running at least 6 runs in 5 days, and I beat my goal mileage at 54.21 miles. I averaged a pace of 7.2 mph which is a bit slower than I’d prefer, but it was hot, and I was coming off of the rough patch.  This week I’m aiming to run 60+ miles with at least 7 runs in 6 days (Slightly busy week doesn’t leave time for more than one 2-a-day).  I want to get back to 70 asap so I can get the most out of the 75 days I have left before the Portland Marathon.

Interrupting Shameless Self Promotion: If you’re in Seattle or the nearby environs, come see me and many talented others including Alysha in Henry VIII, for free! Now back to the post at hand-

, my willpower went out the window and I had 7 weeks of sporadic running.  Because I want folks to hold me accountable, prepare for an info-dump after the break:

5/20-5/26: Last week before things went wonky, I got 79 miles and all my speed work in and set a new PR for 1 week distance.

5/27-6/2: 20 Miles… I ran Sunday and Wednesday, and just couldn’t get up in the morning all the rest of the week. No speedwork, no long run.

6/3-6/9: 42 miles, still struggled to get up in the morning, but was feeling a little better, and my mileage showed it.

6/10-6/16: 20 again, back to just feeling drained and exhausted and eating horribly.

6/17-6/23: 73 miles, I shouldn’t have just jumped back up, It was nearly a month after I’d last ran remotely that far and it was just too much, because the next week:

6/24-6/30: 24 miles, no speedwork, no long run…same lack of energy as early June, just couldn’t get up all week.

7/1-7/7: 39 miles

7/8-7/14: 26 mile

Which brings us to last week.  Last week went great! Although I’ve lost some speed and stamina (and gained a couple of pounds)  from the 7 week rough patch, it is only a speed bump.  I’m back in gear after last week and I still have 76 days before Portland.  76 days of hard work to make sure I reach my goal of qualifying for Boston! I’ve made a conscious decision not to audition for any fall shows so that I have the time to devote to training for Portland and  finding (and potentially completing) an internship to complete my Personal Trainer Certification.

I thought about finishing this post with an analysis of why I lost will power for that chunk of time, why I had trouble getting up in the morning, but the fact is it doesn’t matter.  I’m sure I had valid reasons excuses, but when it comes down to it it’s a short hiccup in long-term training and not worth over-thinking.  What matters is that I’ve recommitted myself to achieving my goals and nothing (not even myself) is going to stop me!

Alison Delgado competes in the 2012 Flying Pig Marathon
Image (C) Mayfield Clinic Blog

Today’s inspirations are Dr. Alison Delgado and her Husband Tim. Alison was the focus of a story by Nancy Averett in the June 2012 issue of Runner’s World magazine. She recovered from a nearly life ending injury in October 2010 to run a new PR at the 2012 Flying Pig Marathon on May 6th. See their story and why it inspires me after the break.

Even without the injury Alison would be a decent inspiration for any runner, back in 2005 just after finishing college, she ran the Flying Pig Marathon (her first 26.2) in 3:03:52 and won the race. She was a life time runner at that point, but finishing your first marathon is a huge achievement, let alone winning it! The Runner’s World article didn’t have much about the time between that Race and October 2010, but from what I could find on Marathon Guide, being in med school during the intervening years kept her from running much (which is to be expected). She did the Columbus Marathon in 2006, and the Flying Pig again in 2009, never achieving the speed she had in the first race. In Early 2010 she married Tim Delgado, also a doctor, a cyclist, and pretty dang inspirational as you shall see.

On October 16, 2010 their lives would change drastically. Ms. Averett describes  the accident:

GIVEN THE unseasonable warmth of that day, Alison Delgado, who had just worked 13 days straight as a pediatric resident at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, couldn’t wait to get outside and work out. Instead of running, though, she decided to ride her bike. Cycling was really Tim’s sport. He’d coaxed Alison into it after they first started dating four years earlier and had even proposed to her after they both completed a grueling ride up a Colorado mountain. Alison preferred running, but she’d developed a passion for cyclocross, an event that reminded her of cross-country. Because she had a race coming up, she decided to go for a long ride, 30 miles, heading southeast from her congested urban neighborhood toward the leafy suburb of Anderson Township.

She was cruising down a long hill, hugging the right curb of Corbly Street, a major thoroughfare, when a driver coming the opposite way began a left turn onto Berkshire Club Drive. Alison entered the intersection just as the driver swung into the turn. First came the squeal of brakes, then the sickening thud of a body, Alison’s, slamming into the car frame, before catapulting over the roof and landing with a horrifying thump on her back. In an instant she had broken several vertebrae in her neck, jaw, clavicle, sternum, bruised her heart and lungs and, worst of all, torn an artery in her brain. Unconscious on the pavement, she gurgled and choked as blood pooled in her airways. Drivers rushed from their cars. Someone called 911.

Across town, Tim was on duty in the ER at University Hospital when a call came over the radio:

“AirCare 1 and Pod Doc, request for a flight from Mercy Anderson coming back to University Hospital.”

“Pod Doc copies,” Tim responded, then hustled to the elevator that would take him to the hospital’s rooftop. He was on call that afternoon to ride on the hospital’s medical helicopter, ferrying patients from other hospitals back to University—the only facility in the region with the equipment and doctors to treat serious trauma victims. As a second-year resident in emergency medicine, Tim had been chosen for the flight program because of his ability to remain calm under pressure, critical during a helicopter ride when patients are often clinging to life.

Soon he was soaring over the city, full of adrenaline, thoughts racing with emergency medical protocols. Minutes later, the helicopter landed in the parking lot of Mercy Anderson, a small hospital 12 miles from downtown Cincinnati. Tim rushed inside where a doctor briefed him on the patient, a female cyclist who’d been hit by a car and suffered a severe head injury.

The woman’s blood pressure was high and her heartbeat slow—several times it had dipped to just 30 beats per minute—and there were indications of brain swelling. She was in a coma and had scored a 5 on the Glasgow Coma Scale, a test that measures a patient’s responsiveness to various stimuli. A normal GCS score is 15; a 3 often means the person is in a vegetative state.

Tim glanced at the woman. Her head was cushioned between two blocks with a cervical collar around her neck to hold it steady. A breathing tube was inserted in her mouth. He noticed her blue cycling jersey, then saw the “Team Hungry” logo on her shorts. That’s my cycling team, he thought. There were only two women on the team. One of them was Ali, his bride of five months. His heart began to pound. Her face was bloodied, her jaw twisted. Please don’t let it be Ali, he thought as he glanced back up.

Alison Delgado is photographed at University Hospital on Oct. 18, two days after her accident. She didn’t awaken from a coma until Oct. 22. / (C) Cincinnati Enquirer

But, of course, it was his wife.  The next few minutes played out like a scene from a movie (or an episode of ER), Tim realizing it is Alison, and telling the nurse that the patient is his wife,  A nurse, knowing that he can’t effectively treat his own wife calling for another doctor, and Tim just staying by her side as she lay unconscious during the helicopter ride back to his hospital.  Initially Tim’s colleague Dr. Brian Stettler, let him know the prognosis didn’t look good: as a result of the injury to her brain an aneurysm (the ballooning of a blood vessel) had formed, and burst in her brain. Amazingly, the concussion she had actually stopped the bleeding, but if the swelling from the concussion got worse it could cut off circulation and cause a stroke.

Luckily that didn’t happen and a few days later she woke up, but a full recovery wasn’t expected, the doctors felt she’d be functional, but might not be able to resume pursuing her passion for running, or her career in medicine.  It took a few days for it to sink in for Alison how much this might alter her life, and it really hit her when her father came in with an old running buddy.  She broke down crying.

 Trying to diffuse the moment, Terry [her father] borrowed the Tom Hanks line from Alison’s favorite movie, A League of Their Own. “Crying?” Terry said. “There’s no crying in recovery!”

Just like that the tears stopped, and Alison’s eyes narrowed. The look, so familiar from Alison’s teenage years, thrilled Terry. “When I saw that,” he said, “I knew she was going to be okay.”

After a month of rehab, and a procedure to hopefully alleviate the aneurysm and prevent another burst, Alison got to go home, with the okay to work her way back to more strenuous activity.  But only 3 days after returning home her aneurysm burst.  This led to a series of “clipping” procedures and when all was done she’d lost 20 pounds, and was very weak.  At first she needed Tim’s physical support just as much as emotional, he held her hand as she did lunges, but she built back her strength.  By March 2011 the doctors cleared her to run, and soon she was back to running every day.

As the year went on she trained and she got stronger, and faster, all while jumping back into her intense medical residency. She PR’d a 5k (18’39″) and by January she decided that she was going to do the 2012 Flying Pig Marathon.  She trained hard (by March she was running 70 mile weeks) and it paid off.  A little over a year and a half after the accident that nearly killed her, Dr. Delgado ran the Flying Pig, placing 4th and setting a new PR for herself at 3:01’34″.

Alison and Tim Delgado during her Physical therapy (c) CNN

The story of her journey from the brink of death, to the best running shape of her life inspires me greatly.  It makes the little road bumps I face in training (which I’ll get into in more detail another day) seem inconsequential.  Also inspiring is the love and support Tim showed her during her recovery.  Not only did he literally support her during the early days of her recovery (Seen in this video at Cincinnati.com), but later on rather than being overprotective and discouraging her from being too strenuous, he bought her a GPS watch for Valentines Day to help her track her runs.  Alison is the kind of athlete I strive to be: able to overcome any obstacle  to succeed, able to take what life throws at you and use it as fire for victory; and Tim is the kind of husband I will strive to be: loving, caring, supportive, with such a strong belief in the woman he loves that he will do anything to help her achieve her goals.

Let me know what  you think about the idea of these “Inspiration” stories in the comments, and let me know who (or what) inspires you.  I also suggest you all go read the original Runner’s World article The Reanimation of Alison from which all the quotes in this post originated. Even re-reading it while working on this blog post I got a little teary eyed.

This week that changes. I’m not jumping back into 4 2-a-days a week because going from 20-35 miles a week back to 70+ miles in one week is a recipe for failure.  So far I’ve got 8 miles Sunday, 9 miles Monday (containing a 5×800 workout), and a 2-a-day today (8 in the morning and 6 tonight).  My speed has suffered by not sticking to my workout schedule, but I’ve still got 11 weeks before Portland, and I think I can still pull off the BQ but I’m going to have to work hard. Good thing is, I love a challenge!