3 posts tagged “running”

Registered yesterday for the San Francisco Marathon on July 29. Gonna run the first half, which starts at Mission & Embarcadero, continues around the water past Fisherman's Wharf and Crissy Field up to Golden Gate Bridge, and then down through the Richmond into Golden Gate Park.

My longest run to date is around 7 miles, so my goal is to just finish this 13 miles without regard to time - though, to be honest, I'd love to run it in under 2 hours. Will be using this training program which I was turned onto by Amie, my nutritionist and all-around pal, but first, over the next several weeks, I'll be getting into the habit of running 25 miles a week. Quite a step up from my current 10, but my iPod is loaded with Battlestar Galactica and SFMOMA podcasts and Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, and I'm ready to get going.

Travis hooked me up with mapmyrun.com, which uses Google maps to help you plot your run routes, calculate your speed etc. Here's the run i did Saturday morning. Pretty neat.

I first heard about ultramarathons from Raul, my boot camp instructor, whose cousin ran in the Badwater Ultramarathon from the bottom of Death Valley to the top of Mt. Whitney. I asked how many individual legs the race was divided into. He sort of looked at me funny and said "one".

It blew my mind that people have that kind of endurance, both physical and mental. I wondered if I could ever challenge myself in that way. Something tells me no - but then, since I was 22 I never thought I'd be able to run a mile again in my life.

Today Wired has an article about a guy whose accomplishments are even more mind-boggling:

Dean Karnazes ran 50 marathons in 50 days. He does 200 miles just for fun. He'll race in 120-degree heat. 12 secrets to his success.

Having taken a break from my weight loss diet over the holiday weekend and pigged out on fries, desserts and vodka, I'm jealous of Karnazes' eating habits:

You wouldn't believe the stuff Karnazes consumes on a run. He carries a cell phone and regularly orders an extra-large Hawaiian pizza. The delivery car waits for him at an intersection, and when he gets there he grabs the pie and rams the whole thing down his gullet on the go. The trick: Roll it up for easy scarfing. He'll chase the pizza with cheesecake, cinnamon buns, chocolate éclairs, and all-natural cookies.

Hmm...

Jaka level watch: 16