Stockholm Marathon: Known as that time I didn't train

Waiting for the Stockholm airport bus to take me to the city.

As you know, I run many half marathons and am addicted to Ragnar Relays.  But I've only done one full marathon and that was in January this year while in Dubai (See blog post on Dubai Marathon).

Outside Karolinska Institutet's new lecture hall complex - the Aula Medica where we set up the Tinnitus interview.

That one was surprisingly easy.

Well...maybe not super easy. I'm not going to say that I sailed through it, but I was able to get up the next day and go sailing without feeling any pain.

Stockholm 

So when I went to Stockholm to interview a scientist on the latest tinnitus research on the same weekend as the Stockholm marathon, I thought, "Why not?"

One of the many bridges in Stockholm

Yeah...now that it's over.  I can tell you "Why not." I didn't train.

Apparently, training for a marathon is really helpful.  And you know how they say your muscles will remember? Ha, ha, ha, ha...I think my muscles did remember -- and instead of running, they were thinking "hell, no!".

Beginning of the Stockholm Marathon

So did I complete it? Absolutely!

In Dubai, my time was 4 hours and 29 minutes. So I figured this time, I should run with the 4:20 team.

Remember, I have not trained as it's been a rainy spring in Switzerland and I've been traveling for work a lot.  But, I am obviously a little delusional about how fit I am.

These were people who were still running after I was done. They look as miserable as I felt.

So off I went.

I'm going to tell you straight off that the Stockholm course is a little harder than the Dubai course.  First of all, it's not at sea level.  Secondly, they have hills and bridges. Thirdly, they have wind. All three of these are excuses for why I sucked, but I'm sticking to them.

Surprisingly (maybe it's because I'm too stubborn to admit defeat), I did keep up with the 4:20 pacer until about Mile 18. Then my legs decided they were done with this and I had to slow down to the 4:30 pacer...and then at Mile 23 to the 4:40 pacer.

By then, I no longer cared about my time. I just wanted it to be over...but wait... what was that coming up? Another stupid bridge with a hill? Man.

There was also a can of beer which I left at the pick up area and a protein shake which I drank hoping it would miraculously take away my pain. Nope. Just loaded with empty calories.

I finished the race, but barely.

Then I had to walk the 2 miles home which were the longest two miles in history. Really. You know those stories about how your grandpa had to walk 2 miles in the snow, dragging 50 pounds of books with him? Well, this was harder. I had to drag my tired butt home AND a bag of free race goodies.

My only condolence was that I got to walk past all the runners who were still running (suckers!!!). They looked as bad as I felt - thankfully.  I really do love company when miserable.

Thankfully, Stockholm is a great place to sit and watch people - when your legs no longer want to move.

The next day, I was still feeling the marathon. I could barely walk and when trying to jaywalk across the street, I told my legs to run, and they refused.  Running was no longer an option. I didn't just hit the proverbial marathon wall; it collapsed on me and pinned me down. I was going to have to move in painful slow motion if I was going to move at all.

On the bright side, my interview with Chris Cederroth and his returned turned out fantastic.  See below.

Running in Prague

John Lennon's Wall in Prague

Last year I got really lost in Madrid while on a run. I mean really lost. The first 90 minutes were great. I was running through the streets in the early morning and thinking it was a beautiful city. The only people I saw were drunk people walking home from the bar (it was 6:00 am) and there were hardly any cars on the road. Then I realized I had no idea where I was.

I had no money on me, my hotel key was so “cool” it was black with no words and I couldn’t speak Spanish. The next two hours of running while lost were not fun.

I need a running guardian angel

The problem with European cities is that they are old. Most of them aren’t built on a grid system like the cities in the US. Instead the roads are tiny and spiral out from the main square or cathedral. And for people like me who don’t have an amazing internal compass, chances are we won’t get far before we don’t know where we are.

Charles Bridge in Prague seen on my running tour

Thankfully, running has become so popular, that some cities have running guides. Until now, I have only read about these guides in Runner’s World but I had never tried one. The reason for this is that I’m a little embarrassed at how slow I run and I’m not really a great conversationalist when running. Once I’m in the zone, my mind kind of drifts off and does other things which may explain why I get lost so often.

Getting out of the tourist zone with Running Tours Prague

This past weekend, I was in Prague — another old and not built on a grid city. Before I arrived, I looked on the map to see where my hotel was and to see if I could map out a running route. Nope. It was going to be complicated. Plus, I don’t like running on cobblestone so I would need to find a path that was paved or dirt. It was time to try a running guide.

Devil’s Creek in Prague

Running Tours Prague to the rescue

I found runningtoursprague.com through google and they had everything I wanted. I wanted to run for about two hours. I wanted to see some sites, but mostly I wanted to run in the parks and non-cobblestone areas. And I really didn’t want someone to talk to me as I was staying in the Old Square and could get a history lesson on the city from one of the walking tours in the area later on.

Oh…and I wanted them to get me from my hotel instead of me trying to find them somewhere in a city I didn’t know.

Me with Andy my Prague running tour guide

Andy, my guide, was there to meet me exactly at 7 am on Sunday morning. I told him the plan and off we went. He took me along the river, through parks and around the outside of the city through all the green spaces. We climbed hills to see the city from above and then weaved our way back to my hotel. He let me stop and take photos when I wanted and never made me feel like a turtle. It was wonderful.

Prague from the top of another hill

In fact, it was so wonderful that I ran with him again the next morning. This time we started earlier and he took me on a completely different route that was still away from the tourists.

Devil's Creek in Prague

He asked me what I had seen the day before on my own and when I told him, he made sure we ran past a few of the cool things I had missed like The John Lennon Wall, the weird giant babies, Devil’s Creek, the upside down horse statue, the monastery where they brew their own beer and a couple other places.

Weird baby statues in Prague

The miles passed by quickly. For those two hours each day, Andy was my running guardian angel leading me through the maze of streets so I could relax and just enjoy my run.

I’m telling you, seeing Prague through the eyes of runner is the only way to do it.

Running with my tribe doing the Dubai Marathon

Dubai is one of my favorite cities that I have been to so far. I love the mix of East and West, I love the whole bigger than life sleek skyscrapers and I like that it’s still slow-paced, unlike Shanghai and other modern cities.

I admit that it is expensive there for eating and drinking out, but that’s how it is in Vegas and other tourist-based cities. And compared to Switzerland and the high prices there, the dining out costs are a deal.

I’ve already been to Dubai of number of times, but this time I had a special reason for going. I was going to run the Dubai 2016 Marathon. I have run numerous half marathons in the last 3 years, but I’ve never run the full 26.2 miles.

I figured if I was going to be pain after, then I should do it in someplace beautiful that has luxurious spas and a great view. Another reason for doing it was that I knew the route would be flat and at sea level. This was a big deal because I would be training in Switzerland during the cold and rainy season – which meant that I was barely training. I needed to do an “easy” marathon if I was going to do one at all.

But even knowing this, I still debated and it took three things to finally say, “Let’s do this!” Number 1, was I was asked to give a three-day communications workshop at KAUST in Saudi Arabia. They agreed to fly me home from Dubai as part of my speaking arrangement. I still had to fly from Jeddah to Dubai, but $200 ticket is much cheaper than a $700 ticket.

Number 2 was that I had read a study that runners and cyclists who wanted to compete in mountain sports could use heat training as an equivalent to attitude training. I was training in altitude, but running someplace where it was going to be considerably hotter. I was hoping the reverse was also true.

And Number 3, was that I convinced another girlfriend to run it as well and I knew her training was going as badly as mine. Misery loves company! We decided to run our hearts out and then celebrate with sparkling wine –even if we couldn’t walk afterwards.

Having her join also helped me financially as I wanted a hotel room walking distance from the finish line as I knew getting a cab would be impossible with the roads closed. Of course, this being Dubai and me waiting until the last minute, the cheapest rooms were $600 a night. Might more tolerable knowing it would be split between the two of us.

The race was fantastic. We started running at 6:30 am as the sun was just rising and I was done in 4:29. The route was flat and smooth, and with the view of the Dubai skyline in one direction and the famous Burg when getting close to the finish line. I also loved the runners. Half marathons are always so crowded and I can’t seem to get my pace until mile 7 or 8 as I’m dodging people or slowing down until there is space to go around them.

The marathon was different. No one was racing out of the gate and by mile 4 or 5, people had found their long-distance pace and just kind of stayed in it. Plus, even though I was slowing down from mile 18 onwards, I was motivated to keep going because everyone around me was also hitting the wall – or had already hit it and were limping slowly forward. I was with my tribe of fellow non-Olympians who just like to run and it felt good.

Côtes de l’Orbe - the Swiss wine half marathon

The Côtes de l'orbes half marathon takes you along roads, villages and even forest trails.

For years, I've been trying to do the Marathon Du Médoc in France.  This is a marathon where you run in fancy dress through the French vineyards, sipping wine along the way.  Doesn't it sound fantastic?

I've been dying to try it -- and every year, it sells out and I can never get in.

Lots of vineyards along the way

But...then I learned that Switzerland has their own version of this marathon. It's the Côtes de l’orbs half marathon.  It's based on the same concept of the Marathon du Médoc in that it's both sporty and festive. You are encouraged to dress in fancy dress, and that every few kilometers you have the choice of wine or water as you run. It's the only one of its kind in Switzerland -- which is kind of cool and a reason to sign up.

For some reason, I think the idea of running it in France would still be fun and will try again for the Médoc Marathon, but I figured this one would be a perfect practice run-through.

And don't forget the scenery. Awesome.

SIGNED UP BUT THEN THIS HAPPENED...

I signed up in July for the September 12, 2015 Côtes de l’orbs race and I was determined to run this thing in my fancy dress.

Well, actually I didn't go all fancy. I'm still a purest when I run and am always working towards improving my time -- so generally want to wear clothes that are made for running rather than a prom dress.

But in the spirit of the run I decided to go a little fun. I bought a cheap running skirt and glued sparkly dragon flies and flowers on it.  I know. I'm lame.  I figured I would go comfortable this year and then next year, go all out. Also, I was worried about the hills. After the Urban Trail des Singles totally kicked my butt (see blog post about the Urban Trail des Singles here), I knew running in Switzerland were not for the average marathoner. Those mountains are killer and this time I wanted to be prepared.

Have I mentioned that the scenery is awesome?

Btw... on race day, I did see a number of really fast runners decked out in dresses and wigs (see photo below) -- so it is possible to run in fancy dress and still do well. They must have been melting, but they looked great!

Anyone else instantly have Aerosmith's "Dude that looked like lady" in their head?

So I had the outfit and I had been doing some hill training in preparation. There was just one problem. The weekend before the race, I attempted mountain biking in Nendaz.  This was my first time and we I think we did the Mount Fort Tour (see more details of the Mount Fort Tour on the Secret Alps website). It's the easiest of the routes in the area. It's about 50 km and mostly downhill.

Unfortunately, I'm not good at downhill as I have trouble controlling my speed and had a bad wipeout (still enjoyed the day and would do it again).  I didn't break anything, but I was bleeding and bruised up a lot. But what really sucked was that my right knee had swelling under that patella, making it impossible to run without a lot of pain.

This is one of the many water/wine stops along the route. Not like any other race I've ever been in.

Regardless of the pain, I'm stubborn and refused to call it quits.  But I decided that because this was not the Olympics, I should compromise and be a little safe. Yup, that's right. I decided I would put on my little sparkly dragonfly outfit and walk half marathon anyway.


BEST DECISION EVER

The Côtes de l’orbs has you running through vineyard and a number of small winery towns along the course.  You start out in Arnex-sur-Orbe and then you run from there.

Cute Swiss town along the route.

I began my walk and after about 3km, the first offering of wine was available.  I don't know what I expected, but I didn't expect real glasses poured full and numerous choices to pick from. It was more like visiting a vineyard than participating in a race.  It was strangely wonderful.

The wine/water stops continued every 2 or 3 km along the entire 21 km route.  I resisted until kilometer 9 and then thought I should partake as the vine owners looked a little sad every time I just passed them by.

I picked a chilled white wine from the stand, and it was then I learned that I would never be able to run the Marathon du Médoc in France and drink wine at the same time.  It might be that I'm not Swiss enough, but after one glass, walking was the only option. My drive to run was completely gone.  I was in mellow, relax mode.

The Swiss amaze me on how they can smoke and run. 

Thankfully, I wasn't the only walker. There were numerous walkers and even those who were sort of running the race, were not there to get a good PR (although there were a handful that were running like the wind though and passing by all the wine like the "dude that looked like a lady" in the photo earlier in this post).

Those that stopped tended to hang out for 15 to 20 minutes drinking the wine and eating the bread and cheese that was provided.  Yeah...no boring bananas and gatorade here.  It was good food and good wine.

This really was a bizarre race.  Check out the runners standing by the wine barrel above.  They look like serious runners, but there they are chatting, drinking and smoking at what was kilometer 16.

It took me about 5 hours to walk the entire half marathon - including all the wine sipping stops along the way.  And instead of a medal at the end, you got a bottle of wine to take home. Pretty cool I must say.

So next year, will I do it? Definitely...and I now that I know I can't "run and wine", I will be walking it with friends. Want to join me?

Urban Trail des Singes: The race that kicked my butt

Amazing…the website said. Beautiful…read the description. Absolute pleasure and sumptuous landscapes…were also in bold. So what was it? It was the Urban Trail des Singes. This is a half marathon that takes runners through one of the wine areas in Switzerland, and naturally with a description like that, I had to try it.

The website also showed these great photos of the route overlooking Lake Geneva. It looked wonderful.  There was just one important thing I didn’t consider and that was, if the route overlooks Lake Geneva and you start at lake level, that means there are some big hills to climb.

Photo from the Urban Trail des Singes website

SWISS RUNNERS ARE GODS

I’m not exactly a half marathon virgin. I run a few a year and already had run two in the two months I’ve lived in Switzerland. Plus, I run for fun… a lot. But when I showed up at the Urban Trail des Singles, I knew I was in trouble. My first clue was that there were only about 500 people running the event which I thought was strange especially as the route was so scenic and even took you through an UNESCO heritage site. I mean…why wouldn’t you want to run it?

My second clue was the type of runners who did show up. These were not your every day runners. These were serious runners.

I arrived about two hours too early as I didn’t expect the bus to arrive as quickly as it did, which meant that I had a lot of time to study my fellow runners. 

Normally in a half marathon you have a mix of people. Some of them look super fit and you know they will be the elite that finish first. You have normal looking people like me that finish in the middle and you have the first time people or people who are out there to walk it and have fun. They are a little more average looking and usually come with a friend.

This race didn’t have any of the average people at all. This was not a "bring a friend" type of race. In fact, most of them looked like they were in the elite level as they were lean with muscular legs. You can tell they trained for hill running. I, on the other hand, did not train for hills. Mostly because running hills is not fun and I’m a lazy runner.

In other words, I was going to be in trouble.

HILLS SUCK…A LOT

I’m going to post my disclaimer that I probably should not have run this race. Not because I was not in shape (which I wasn’t), but because I had severe allergies and getting over bronchitis at the time – so even walking would cause me to hack up stuff and left my lungs straining. But I really didn’t want to miss out on the scenery.

There's also something else you might need to know and that is that I never look at the race map in advance.  I figure, "Why bother? I'm not going to be first anyway so I don't need to know the way." Besides, I like to be surprised.

In this case, looking at the map might have prepped me for how many hills there were.  But then maybe I may have chickened out as it was hard.

The race began and within minutes we were already climbing – and by climbing, I mean like 200 meters nearly straight up the hill. Instantly, I was glad that I only signed up for the half and not the full marathon.

The first hill I pushed through but then realizing there was not going to be any “flat” running sections in this race – only steep ups and knee-breaking downs as we wound through the vineyards, I gave up. I was completely out my fitness league so decided to just enjoy it.  I jogged the downs, then walked the ups which seemed to be the strategy most of the other mid-level runners like me had adopted.

I know we sound lame, but really, on many of the hills, even walking the “ups” you had to be bent over as the incline was so intense.

In reality, this was not a race where you would achieve your personal best. Not only were the hills more extreme compared to the average marathon, but the route involved climbing narrow stairs where you were at the mercy of going only as fast as the person in front of you (I didn’t mind the slow climber ahead of me as I used the time to catch my breath) and there were also narrow single-file trails to jog through.

The purpose of this race was to push yourself through the grueling route while enjoying the scenery. And next year, I will do it again – but I will hill train first.

Oops…I did it again and ran a Ragnar

Del Sol Ragnar - 202 miles from Wickenburg to Tempe

If you live in the Phoenix area and were out on the roads this weekend, you may have noticed a couple hundred decorated white vans either driving down the road or parked in long lines in the middle of the desert. These vans were part of the Del Sol Ragnar – and I was in one of them.

If you’ve been following my blog, then you know I did my first Ragnar this past fall as my 2012 bucket list item (read about my Vegas Ragnar).

You would think running one 202 mile relay across the desert would be enough for someone to do in their lifetime, but apparently not for this crazy adventurous girl becauase I did it again. And you know what? I’ll probably do a third one eventually because the people you meet are just so fun – AND next time I want to wear a crazy outfit. Yes, I’m expanding my wild side.

JoDee in her costume

“What I love about Ragnars is that you don’t have to be an elite runner to do them,” said Brynn Tinker Campbell. “You just have to do them.”

I met Brynn during my Vegas Ragnar. She’s this down-to-earth teacher/cattle rancher from Wyoming who’s just as crazy as I am. Okay…maybe more crazy as this was her sixth Ragnar and she’s signed up for the Utah one in June. She drove hours and hours from Wyoming to Phoenix to run on our Pink Flamingo team.

“You do one and then you end up doing another one,” said Brynn, who like me didn’t know anyone else on the Pink Flamingo team. “You start off as strangers, but by the end, you are family.”



And she’s not the only crazy one. Our entire van was filled with amazing people. We had JoDee Braaten, our fearless leader, who ran all her legs wearing a pink flamingo outfit – complete with feathers, two Stephanies, Missy, Brynn and me.

Pink Flamingo van- our mobile hotel for the next 33 hours

“The first year I was only going to wear the costume at the exchanges – and not the actually running part. Then I wore it for my first leg. Then the second leg and then I figured I might as well wear it for the third,” said JoDee.

This was the third year she was wearing the costume. She says after this year, she’s going to retire it. It was beginning to molt, plus she hadn't washed it -- so it had three Ragnars worth of sweat on it.

Then there was Stephanie Maxwell, a mother of 2 who ran an ironman in the fall and was planning on running the Phoenix Marathon the following weekend. While most marathoners would probably be treating their bodies with kindness the week before a big race, Stephanie was going to push hers to the limit.

“I wasn't planning on doing the Ragnar because of the marathon, and then I looked at my legs and I had 13 miles the first day, then 4 miles and then 3. I would have been running that for training anyway,” Stephanie said.  

Me hugging a guy in bear coat

See? These women are just as crazy as me which goes to show you are never alone in your quests. And when you do find these kindred spirits, it’s like you’ve found this strange supportive family – well in this case we were a sweaty, smelly and tired family as we took turns running the 200 mile race all night long.

But that makes the connection special because surviving the struggle is part of the Ragnar experience. It’s not easy. It hurts.

“I love coming out and seeing first-timers and people who are giving it their all,” Brynn said. “Sure there are some athletes who are good runners, but the ones I love are the people you know don’t do this everyday. You know the ones who really have to push themselves to get it done.”

These non-athletes are the real “super stars” of the race. You can’t help to cheer them on and when they reach their goal, you feel like you’ve watched something special.
 

The line to the potties

For example, there was this one guy who running on the 13.5 mile leg, which was the longest leg of the Del Sol course. We noticed him struggling already at mile 6 when we drove to the exchange to meet our runner, and when he neared the finished line, he was suffering. I mean really suffering. Suffering so much that he could barely run.

Still he was giving it everything he had.

The whole crowd had to cheer as he crossed the finished line. It was just so inspiring – but worthwhile.

No one ever said reaching your dreams would be easy, but when you do reach them, it’s magical.


FIVE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT RAGNARS:


1) The people - You meet people of all ages, fitness levels and sizes.

Being part of the scenery - priceless

2) Running at 3 a.m. when it's so dark all you can see is the light from your headlamp and your breath in the cold night air.

3) The challenge - It's hard. Really hard to run that long on that little sleep.

4) Being part of the scenery (not watching it from a window)

5) The atmosphere - Think of it as a healthy Burning Man because we really are a mobile village where everyone lets go of reality just for the weekend.