Thanksgiving Point 2014 Results and Reflections from the Race

This is the second time I participated in Thanksgiving Point’s half marathon: all 13.1 miles of it! According to my personal iPod that tracks my distance, it was actually closer to 14 miles. Anyway, I woke up with a late start and had to speed from Orem to make it to Lehi before the gunshot. It was almost a tuck and roll situation. Luckily my wife can drive really fast. The weather was extremely rainy the entire time. I ran by Thanksgiving Point's  Noah’s Ark exhibit and thought how fitting it was for the day. I wore a waterproof jacket with a hood but after about 6 miles with the excessive perspiration and the rainfall the jacket was rendered pointless. (I think I will now look into upgrading my running clothes since my baggy gym shorts don’t stay up too well when they are waterlogged.)

The tulips and Italian gardens were once again breathtakingly beautiful to run through at dawn. The rain was a nice touch to that scenery. The main reason why I choose to run the Thanksgiving Point half marathon instead of all the other options available in the valley is because they offer admission for two into everything their giant facility has to offer once you have registered for their race. I like this because even if something bad happens and I am unable to race then I haven’t just blown sixty bucks that can be added as a charitable donation to active.com.

Last year I didn’t train well and I walked three of the 13 miles and I had one bathroom break and I finished with the time of 2 hours, and 20 minutes. I am a little depressed and can’t figure out the mystery of this one but this time I trained harder, didn’t walk at all, and I didn’t take any bathroom breaks and I finished with the time 2 hours, and 21 minutes?!? I blame the rain because that just makes no sense to me.

At least I made par. My pace was decent at about 10 -11 minutes a miles. You need to be going at least 16 minutes a mile to be considered a finisher. They take the clock and finish line down after 4 hours, and open traffic up again. I guess you could say even though I am not the best at races I still love them and hope that I can still do them in my old age.

Have you ever tried to run a half marathon? 

Dealing with Tendonitis

For those of you who follow me on Facebook I mentioned about how I was dealing with some minor complications while training for another half marathon. I discovered a chronic pain in my lower right ankle. I saw what looked like a goose egg that had formed on the back lateral part of my heel. The goose egg would swell and cause me to limp like Tiny Tim all day.

Finally after dealing with the pain and the limping for over eight weeks I finally went in to see my doctor. I discovered that I have a mild form of Achilles Tendonitis. This is caused when too much weight is constantly impacting on the heel of your foot. This can cause minor ruptures within your tendons and other joints in your foot.

Illustration of Achilles Tendonitis 

Luckily I found that there is a cure. I was instructed by my doctor to take ibuprofen before I ran and to wear what is called a Strassburg sock.

My sexy leg wearing the Strassburg sock

The Strassburg sock is pretty much a funny looking sock with a splint that you are supposed to wear on your foot for 2 weeks. I felt like I looked like an elf in rehab. This foot splint is supposed to keep your toes suspended upward all night long so that the tendon's ruptures can heal more efficiently. Imagine a cut on the knuckle of your finger. If the knuckle is always moving the wound will take forever to heal.

Long story short, the limping stopped after two nights of wearing the funny-looking sock. I still feel some tenderness down there and the goose egg has not completely vanished but my doctor thinks I can still run in my half marathon.

One of the facts of life for a long distance runner is you are constantly dealing with some sort of pain or sickness. They say it’s just part of the game. With that in mind when I am running in a race I don’t feel so much like I am competing with the other runners. More so, I am competing with myself to see if I can endure the miles.

Have you ever seen or heard of the Strassburg sock before?

The day I threw my vote away and it worked

As I mentioned in blog "Safety starts Now!" my company takes safety to insane measures.
http://accordingtokirk.blogspot.com/2014/01/safety-starts-now.html

My company has now divided everyone into groups, like a safety buddy system in teams. Our assigned groups are supposed to watch out for one another in our teams and help keep them out of harm’s way. Now we are collectively rewarded as a group when we can go a full calendar quarter with no recordable injuries at work, and thus we are also collectively punished if one of us gets officially injured.

To reward us, at the end of each quarter our company treats everyone in our group to lunch from our choice of caterers. In preparation for our very first lunch our CEO asked us all to select a team name that we can all rally behind. Via email, some people submitted inspirational names and a few submitted really stupid names. If you know my opinions on democracy most of the time I exercise my right to vote and throw it away when I feel that there are no good options. I picked the stupidest name on the list.

A week later I was surprised to discover that my stupid vote won the election. The CEO stood up and said, "I am surprised by the involvement in this election. Out of the ten teams that represent ACME’s safety standard’s only one team actually followed through in making a decision. I am pleased to announce that this team's name is 'DJ Jazzy Jeff and the 2 Safe Crew!'" Apparently I was the only person who voted. Because this joke is now official, they are actually making our own official team t-shirts.

This is a first for me, having my vote actually count. Have you ever thrown your vote away? Or have you done anything in jest only to have a seriously official outcome?