TOW The Marathon

TOW = The One With... it's a naming convention that the show "Friends" used when naming their episodes. Such as "TOW The Embryos"... "TOW (The One Where) Ross Finds Out"...

A brief history: so way back in 2009, when Chris and I first went on the 3hree 6ixty 5ive program he created, one of my goals for 2009 was to run a marathon, even though I hate running. 2009 came and went, and then I carried the goal into 2010. It started off well enough, since I joined Team in Training with my cousin and some friends and we got our months of training going. But then with two weeks before the race, I wasn't allowed to run in the Rock and Roll Marathon due to fundraising issues. It was starting to seem like another year would pass with the goal still remaining on my bucket list...

Then during the summer, I found out about the Long Beach Marathon and made that my new goal. I told my old roomie Ben about it, he was down to run it too (making it his first marathon), and in July we started the training process.

Well, he started training. Me... not so much. I was running, but not as often, and not nearly for as long. I think since my 20 mile run at the end of May, the farthest I've ran is 6 miles.

A full marathon is 26.2 miles... big difference. And more than 4 months have gone by since that 20 mile run. So yeah, not that prepared for Long Beach. But that wasn't going to stop me.

A week before the big day, I almost switched to doing just the half marathon, due to my lack of training. But I've already done an official half-marathon before. And since the goal was to complete a full marathon - I figured regardless of how unprepared I felt, "go big or go home."

So we got to the site and off we went... Ben's a good runner, and I wasn't going to try to keep up with him. I expected him to finish in 5 hours, and he did (4:53). So I did my own thing, starting off by walking really briskly so as not to burn off too much energy, and then doing the run/walk thing around mile 8.

The first half was fine. Mile 13 came around and I felt like I still had plenty of energy. I was hydrating at energy stations, eating the gel packs... got a second burst of energy when we ran through CSU Long Beach, as they had different student organizations there to cheer on the runners - I even got a high five! And even before then, because I was running in my Team in Training shirt, I was getting some thumbs-up and "GO TEAM!' cheers from other runners who've probably been affiliated with TnT before.

And then came the last six miles. By this point, my legs wanted to die. They were cramping, sore, energy was low and I was out of gel packs. Fewer crowds were around b/c I was in the back of the pack so the majority of runners had finished. So I was alone, and having to mentally push myself through... I was warned about this. You're physically drained, but you're not going to quit now, not when you're so close... I was exhausted, running alone, and the music from my headphones wasn't helping as much as before. My cousin (when she ran the Rock and Roll) experienced all that. She said she had gotten emotional and wanted to give up too. But some of her family was there to cheer her on from the sidelines (seeing them a few miles before the finish), and one of the TnT coaches was there too to give encouragement.

I didn't have any family or friends in Long Beach, so it added to the whole mental challenge -- that fight of wanting to give up and feeling empty but trying to push through. I felt so stupid, on the verge of breaking down, thinking that I all I wanted was to see my mom and just get a hug from the one who loves me most, blah blah blah... I knew I'd be physically tired, but I wasn't expecting all of that... it was so unexpectedly tough.

At the last mile marker, when I was at my lowest, two ladies came walking up and asked me I was ok. I said I was hanging in there, and they told me to join them. One of them had already finished, but she came back to help her friend finish - pretty awesome of her, right? And then of course doubly awesome that they'd stop to encourage me and tell me to stick with them, and just talk it out as we continued our slow march to the finish. That helped a great deal. Right before we got to the 26 mile marker, so with just .2 miles left until the finish line, Rita (the one who had already finished and had plenty of energy left) was all "alright Ryan, I know you've got a little more left in you, I want you to run to the finish."

I'm pretty sure I gave her a look that said "uhhh no" while I mustered out an "I can't..."
She'd say "yes you can, finish strong!"
I'd say "alright fine, I guess I'll try".
She said "no, don't try, you got this!"

And with that, I relented, thanked them both, and gave that last push to run towards the finish line, to the photographer waiting there, who prompted me to throw my arms up in celebration before snapping the shot.

Apparently it took me 45 minutes to finish those last two miles, and my final time isn't great (6:45, compared to my time for the AFC 1/2 Marathon back in August, where I finished in 2:30) - but I don't care. I finished! I met my goal, I got it done, I can cross the item off my bucket list, and count myself in the 1% of the world that's completed a marathon. :)

And I don't plan on doing another full marathon any time soon... next big run: the Carlsbad Half Marathon - the first of the Triple Crown events I plan to complete in 2011!

Marching On...

Lunch time blog entry time, as I sit alone... *

So yesterday was the 10th anniversary of Flood church. I've been going since 2004, I think, so I remember the old days at the College Avenue Baptist campus, and the later transition to the church's current home at Kearny High School. I don't think I've ever been at a church this long, especially one that I'd consider my own church.

The sentimentalist in me is thankful for Flood since it's brought good people into my life. (This is going to be a sappy blog, I know.)

But really. If it weren't for the Flood drama group back in 2004, I never would've re-connected with my old high school drama classmate Brittany, aka The Weez to my KD. And becoming friends with Brit and spending time at Disneyland and the start of TV Thursdays lead to me meeting and hanging out with her roommate Jordan, who would later become the illustrious TGO... Being a part of Flood drama also brought into my life Johannah - aka the "Jen" to my "Jack" (Dawson's Creek reference) - and all the laughter and scheming that we used to have... some of them including Brit, like the time I swore in front of her for the first time (epeatedly) due to a Johannah-scheme that involved me, or ditching church with Jo so that we could hang in PB (church was at night - but yeah, this still sounds horrible)... so never would I have guessed that these two girls from my high school would be such a big part of my 20s.

Knowing Johannah also played a part in me knowing Chris, and so did his being a part of Flood too. Having been a regular of the local coffeehouse show circuit back in 2004, I knew Chris' face. I was familiar with a number of faces actually. A lot of the same people went to the usual venues on a regular basis to see the usual bands and artists that played all the time, and so I started recognizing people, even if I was too introverted to say anything. Until I came across Chris' MySpace profile (all due to a comment he left on someone else's page) and read that he went to Flood - and because that one thing made him different from all the other music fans I saw around town, I made the bold (well, for me) move to say "hey what's up..." Of course, it would later turn out that Chris knew Johannah as well, and eventually the friendships solidified, and thankfully both are still around...

And of course, now there's Chris + Jordan... but I've waxed on about those two in various forms in recent weeks, so I'm quite spent when it comes to discussing my feelings on those two. ;)

Flood's had great ministries over the past 6 years that I've been in attendance - some of which I've been part of - and the worship there is like none other that I've ever experienced. But what I'm the most grateful for is the friendships that were formed and all the memories that were made and are still to come.

* disclaimer - blog started at lunch, finished at night b/c a friend ended up joining me at lunch

I'm not falling in love with ya...

You know how cheezy characters on TV sometimes hear a song and they say something like, "awww that's my JAM!" An example of this would be in Glee this season, where Will is sitting in his new car with Emma and then he turns on the radio and hears that Christopher Cross song, "Sailing"... and gets all excited because it's his "jam"...

Well, this is my jam (for the foreseeable future): Maroon 5's new song, "Give A Little More"... it's got a little bit of disco flavor to it, is hella fun to sing in the car, and makes me wanna dress up in a 70s outfit and go to the roller rink.

Was in Hollywood last night to see the band perform at the Greek Theater, and it was a blast. Drove up with my good friend Jess. We even had fake LA names too. So if I ever go out, my name is Riley Adam Davidson (I'm adopted). She was Hailey (didn't decide on a full name for herself). 

Maroon 5 played a fun set, with most of their songs coming from their first CD actually. My "jam" from the first CD was "She Will Be Loved" and they did that in a lovely stripped down version and got the audience to harmonize at the end. Rocked out to "Give A Little More", complete with disco ball dropping down from the middle of the stage. Wish they'd played more from their new disc, since I love it, and they only did three, but the CD did just come out so the audience wasn't as loud for the new songs (not as familiar yet) as they were for the old hits. Next tour, maybe. 

Two other highlights from the show:

During One Republic's set (who I now love a lot more - really good live) - they did a medley of Bill Withers' "Stand By Me", The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army", and Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack"... it was pretty rad. 

And then right before Maroon 5 came out, special guest Jason Segel (of How I Met Your Mother!!!) came on and sang while on the piano. He did the song from "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (where his character wrote a musical about Dracula), and an original song about hooking up with Maroon 5 fans after the show, even providing a "his" phone number. That song was kinda dirty, actually. Haha. I'm sure you can YouTube that if curious...