Winter Y2K - Boston Marathon:   Inclement Training

Mele Kalikimaka - 12/15/99.  OK, next week I'm going to Hawaii for Christmas with the fam.  Prefer to be at HOME in SF for Christmas, like normal people, but the alternative would be for me to stay home alone for the holidays, and we all know what happened in the movie.  Anyway, I'm just about ready to take my 4th post-op marathon plunge--Boston Y2K ( and, perhaps, the Napa or Los Angeles Marathon as a training run right before Boston).  Mele Kalikimaka.

Leap Day 2000 - The knee is still alive and kicking.  Official training for Boston began on a Maui beach after Christmas.  Seven more weeks.  Maui doesnt have sucky weather, like SF does.  Despite the Bay Area's six weekends of precipitation so far this year, I'm managing to get through my Sunday long runs, either on the treadmill (whilst watching Jeopardy, Bay Area Backroads, the PGA, NCAA Basketball, the Sunday Afternoon Movie, VHI, and whatever else is on the 8 TV monitors that line the wall at my gym), or outside battling the elements, hence risking pneumonia and, therefore.............my life.  I might note that 18 miles on a treadmill is far easier than 18 miles on earth, given the former's pampered and cushioned ride.  However, you are continually running in a straight line, using the same muscles, repeatedly, over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, which may lead to excruciating pain (what with all that cramping in the calves and feet after you step off the machine--on one horrid occassion, I was rolling around on the floor, shrieking in pure terror, as the chick on the stairmaster matter-of-factly continued with her routine,  watching the blood & veins ripple violently up and down my calves).   This in contrast to the myriad of muscles required to dodge traffic, dart across the street to catch the yellow light that turned red 5 seconds ago, hop a fence with a sign that reads "Private Property," intentionally speed up while holding your breath so you can quickly pass a pack of high school kids smoking on the corner, race cable cars up California Street, escape pit bulls running wild at Ocean Beach, or pick up the pace because here comes that stupid rain again!!!  This past Sunday's 19 miler, grounded on earth, felt quite relaxed (dont get me wrong, though--I was still butt-exhausted by the end)--the rain had broken long enough for me to make it to 18 miles when the sprinkles began.  Please wake me when the rain is over.

Vernal Equinox 2000 - So I'm having Dim Sum on Sunday with the fam, and I tell one of my sisters that I'm running the Turin Marathon next Sunday and Boston next month and she's all, "I'm telling ya now, I'm not taking care of you when you're paralyzed 10 years from now.  Did everyone hear that???"  Yeah, right.  This from someone who's already had surgery on her knee, twice, and on her wrist, yet continues to play Gaelic Football against women twice her size.  Who's gonna be taking care of whom?

Ciao, Italia - When your job demands that you fly to France's Lake Annecy for a week of "work," by all means, dont fight it.  Upon receiving the marching orders, I admit I moped around for a day, trying to figure out how in the world I could squeeze in a long 20+ mile training run for Boston while I was out there.  Fortunately, the Torino Marathon (that's Turin to the lay-Italians) was being run the weekend before I was scheduled to arrive in France.  So, I took a slight detour and headed to Italy, arriving 36 hours before the marathon, and then flew to Geneva 3 hours after I finished.  

The marathon was, like, really Italian.  Take the “goodie bags,” for example, containing beer and salami, and the official race shirt--a polo shirt, with the city of Torino’s emblem, a cherry, shadowed in the shape of Torino’s signature landmark—I was there less than 48 hours, so I really have no clue what the name of this monument is—sorry already!   There were very few foreigners in the field of about 2500 runners.   Turin probably doesnt attract the hordes of runners that the Rome, Venice, Florence, and Milan Marathons do.  Neverthenonetheless, Turin still has a lot to offer.   Keeping in mind that this was just another training run for Boston, I kept my pace relaxed, and was not in any rush to finish.  I had other distractions to pre-occupy me, whilst running the loop course, which started at Torino's Palavela stadium, then proceeded into the industrial country side and villages, and back to the heart of the city, passing multi-million-year-old churches and monuments along the way, or perhaps just centuries-old--it all just looked really, really old.  Running on the cobble-stoned streets of the villages and back alleys of the city probably took 15 years off the life of my precious regenerated cartilage, and probably added a good hour to my finishing time (otherwise I would’ve given Khalid Khannouchi a run for his Olympic medal, if Congress ever wakes up to grant him his citizenship.)  However, I’m just grateful my knee cooperated again, 19 months after surgery.

Parles vous-la-la? - So after Torino, I spent a day in Geneva and 4 days at Lake Annecy, about 20 miles from Albertville, site of the 1992 Winter Olympics.  Torino, incidentally, will be the site of the 2006 Winter Olympics.  The only time I could squeeze in my daily runs was before "work" in the early morning.  So, waking up at 6AM, I set out on paths that took me along the shores of the Lake, where kilometers were conveniently marked.  I averaged 11 miles each day, and dragged myself outta bed at 5:30 one morning to get in a good 15 miler.  It was quite an eerie feeling running in the pitch, pre-dawn dark, with barely anything visible but the snow-capped peaks of the surrounding Alps, and little to be heard along the way, except for my snoring and the do-re-mis of 7 children, their cooky governess, and a nasty baronness coming from the mountains a few countries over....BUTT-COLD, it was frrrrrreeeeezing during my runs, with temperatures in the low 30s--for this San Francisco wuss, it might as well have been 50 below.  However, my anticipated trips to the boulangerie/patisserie after my runs kept me going, pulling me through the worst of the bitter chill.....oh, and the sunrise over the Alps, yeah, that was OK too.  By the end of the week, I had logged over 70 miles between my time in Italy and France, my highest weekly mileage since the knee surgery.  For more on this European Escapade, go to Turin Marathon 2000.

Compartments and Cell Phones and Chicks, Oh Yeah

Aside from the chocolate, what stands out most from my experience at Boston this year were the compartments, and cell phones, and, ahem, chicks, but not necessarily in this order.   Consider this not only a Boston race report, but also a Dummies guide to sports injuries, telecommunications, and, um, handling fame?  Full Report