2013 Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon!

First and foremost, I want to thank all of my supporters. You may have run with me, encouraged me from afar or donated to my fundraising cause for this year (see sidebar on right!). As you know, this year I raised money for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, the organization that paired our family with a professional photographer when we were in the NICU of New York Presbyterian Hospital. The photos Rachel Elkind took of our family will be everlasting gifts that we'll have to remember our precious son Ellis in the 15 short days of his life. Your donations will give some other families that gift and you should be applauded more loudly than anyone who ran the 1/2 this year.

The donation site is up for a few more days if you didn't get a chance to support.

https://www.coloradogives.org/forellis

So race day started early for me. 4am wake up call, after an almost sleepless night. The pre-race jitters, combined with procrastination on preparation (read playlist), over hydration and a fussy baby all contributed to the woeful amount of sleep. My uncle's sister Jill (she ran last year too) picked me up and we were on our way to the bus, a 45 minute drive. From there, the bus took us to the start. The weather this year was a bummer. It was 50 degrees and misty. In fact, it was so foggy, we could barely see anything as we drove to Duluth. At the start, we had about 45 minutes to wait and it finally set in that I was preparing to run my third half marathon. My expectations for this race were high, but pragmatically  I was prepared to not do my best. My training was incomplete, my pre-race was not great and the weather was not my ideal. Nevertheless, when the gun went off, I was on my way.

No turning back.

Due to the weather, there were far fewer spectators this year cheering us on. Another bummer, I thought as I crossed the start about 30 seconds after the gun. This year I had a watch so I'd be watching my splits. Mile one came about 7:20. Good pace I thought, not sure if I could keep it up. Mile two, and the pace was consistent. At the 5K mark, my first "official" split came in at 22:36. Mile four, no change. I resolved to chill out on looking at my pace and concentrate on just relaxing and running. The fog had taken away the gorgeous views of Lake Superior, the light rain/mist had taken away the spectators, so it was just me and the road.

I kept focused on my reason and inspiration for running-the boys and Kate. Thinking of hands, I had practiced signing everyone's names and during the race I kept making everyone's names. E-L-L-I-S (with the LLI being the "I love you" sign, Kate's idea), A-R-L-O, K-A-R-E (after a while I realized my mistake and changed the R to T). Oops! Whenever I saw a photographer, I place the I Love You Sign on my heart for Ellis. You can see my photos here (btw, crazy expensive for digital photos).

My 10K split came in at 45:04 and I knew I was doing well. I felt great and was passing tons of people. Except the Purple Pirate. I couldn't catch him. This guy was barreling along ahead of me, with a wild form, and I couldn't believe he was in front of me. And he was wearing a purple shirt, fringed along the bottom and sleeves. I followed him for miles! Around the eight or nine mile marker, I figured out what his deal was. People were singing "Macho Macho Man" and yelling "Go Macho Man!" as he passed. It dawned on me. Randy "Macho Man" Savage. Eventually, he started to fade and I passed him. I realized that I wasn't fading. In fact, my pace was consistent the whole time and at 10 miles (1:13:11) I started to wonder if a PR was in my future. Knowing that Kate and Arlo were waiting in the next few blocks was a big motivator for the next mile.

I saw Kate right away and crossed the street to say hi to her and Arlo. Even though the weather was gross, she drove down to support me. I owe her the biggest thanks of all. She's been so supportive of my running, through everything. She's my number one inspiration. Thanks love!

Then, to my surprise, Jill's husband Andy popped out! They didn't even know that one another was in the same place waiting. From the meet-up point, there was just a bit more to go. The last official split is 11.9 miles. I crossed at 1:27:09. I did the quick math and realized that I had to finish in just over 11 minutes to beat my last year's time. An eleven minute mile? My pace had been about 7:20 for the entire race. I began to see Running Goal Number 2 come into focus. The last stretch was a strong finish. Seeing Kate and Arlo had energized me and I pushed on to the end. A quick sprint for the last bit and I was crossing the line at 1:35:47. Two minutes, fifty-one seconds faster than last year. 

For fun, here's a video of my finish...

And my playlist...

Get Lucky- Daft Punk
Girl- Beck
Sexy Mexican Maid- Red Hot Chili Peppers
Short Skirt, Long Jacket (Live)- Cake
Daytona 500- Ghostface Killah
Let's All Go To The Bar- Deer Tick
Me So Horny- 2 Live Crew
King of New York- Fun Lovin' Criminals
Stuck In The Middle- Steeler's Wheel
Baby I Got Your Money- ODB
American Woman- The Guess Who
Who Shot Ya- The Notorious B.I.G.
Standing O- Wilco
Jailbreak- Thin Lizzy
Straight Outta Compton- NWA
Moving Out (Anthony's Song) 12-12-12 Benefit, Billy Joel
Mr Big Stuff- The Ska Vengers
Werewolves of Londong- Warren Zevon
Tudo Bem- Garotas Suecas
Michael Jackson- Das Racist
Go! Go! Go!- We Need Surgery
Fix Up, Look Sharp- Dizzee Rascal
Cannonball- The Breeders
Lump- Presidents of the United States of America
Let Me Ride- Dr. Dre
Unbelievers- Vampire Weekend

and the last song before I turned off my iPod was, no lie, Dog Days Are Over- Florence and the Machine 

RACE STATS:

Distance - 13.1 Miles

Time - 1:35:47

Mood - Elated

The "Thing" About Running

This run was for Jonah, a dear friend, a generous donor, and maybe a runner mentioned in a previous post...

On Sunday, May 19 I ran a 10K trail run. I had been itching to do a race, with all of the training I had been doing. Since March, I've run 242 miles, which is helping me approach my goal of 1000 miles this year. It's nice to do a race to keep training fresh, add some incentive and switch up the training.

The day before the race, I found myself talking to my wife, Kate about running. These days I love talking about running. I mean, it's almost obnoxious. I'll talk to anyone about running for as long as I can. Anyway, I found myself saying to Kate, "The thing I love about running is..." And then I realized, that I've said this a million times about a million different things. There is no one thing I love about running. There are a bunch. I used to tease my host sister in Mexico when she would say, "There's a saying in Mexico..." and I would respond, "Really? There's A saying in Mexico." Now I know how she must have felt. Sorry Jadwiga.

But back to the "thing" about running. That "thing," I explained to Kate as she patiently waited for my most recent diatribe to end, is that running and other individual sports don't rely on a winner for satisfaction. You are always competing against yourself.

You have the runs where every stride you take takes you farther than you've ever run before. I remember those runs with great fondness from last year. The reward that comes from doing a 2 mile, then 3 mile, then 5, 6, 7, 10, 13 mile run is incredible. There are few things better than coming back from a run that took you one mile farther than your farthest run.

There also comes a great satisfaction in breaking personal records. The swim coach and basketball coach of our middle school were talking about their respective tournaments during assembly and the swim coach beamed with satisfaction that everyone on the team had beaten personal, school or conference records. The basketball coach then goofed on the fact that they also "beat records." Of course, they didn't and that's the "thing" about running. Every time I run a route that I've planned and come home sooner than I did last time, it's an achievement. Every time I enter an event and finish with a PR, it's an achievement.

That's why I was so excited to run the 10K on Sunday. I've only ever run 2 other 10Ks, and the first was before I really became a runner, so I have no record of it. The other one was last year about this time and it was also a trail run. As far as I could recollect, my time from last year was about 50:30. With this in mind, I set out to beat that time. Just me against me. And whoever else showed up, but that's neither here nor there. Every race has faster runners and slower runners.

Zach(the swim coach), Brent and I attended the staff going-away party on Saturday night, then woke up at 4:15am, headed out the door and arrived to the venue at 5:30am. By 5:45 we were off on the 10K trail run. It was a really fun route that took us into a protected Aravalli bio-diversity park, the remnants of the 1500 million year old Aravalli mountain range, through the local villages and back. We passed temples, dogs, wild pigs and more on the cross-country run. It was the first time for a new running organization in Delhi to organize such an event and as you could expect there were freshman snags. The event was well organized in advance and the check-in was easy breezy. In fact the organizer had made special arrangements to help us register! The signage on the run wasn't great and the front runners of the 10K got lost on the way back to the finish. Being one of them, I convinced the other guy I was with to cut across a ravine to get back on track and we did. From there, we ran back to the finish and I was lucky enough to finish first.

When discussing my finish with my friends, I received the obvious congratulations for finishing first. But the "thing" about running isn't winning, it's beating your PR and doing the best you can on any given day. I tried to explain to a friend that winning the race wasn't that big of a deal. "It just means that I was faster than everyone else who showed up that day." Any other day, with any other runners and the story could be different. A broken PR though, can't be taken away. He replied by simply restating what I had said. "Exactly. You were faster than everyone else that day." Another friend helped me accept my fair share of joy when I said, "It's not that big of a deal." "You're right," he said, "but it's fun, isn't it?"

I guess it is fun, but I know that on any given day, there will be people much faster than me. And that's the "thing" about running. It doesn't matter. As long as I'm true to myself and true to my goals and true to my inspirations and motivators, I'll win. Thanks to Jonah, Zach and Brent for the motivation to get up too early after a night too late. Thanks to my family for giving me a reason to run, and thanks to all of you who read the blog. It's not too late to add to my inspiration. If you can donate a few dollars, it's enough to get me out the door on the days that I want to stay in bed, cozying up to my wife and son.

Oh, and we had moustaches!

Please visit https://www.coloradogives.org/forellis and see why I'm running this year.

 

 

RUN STATS:

Distance - 10K (6.2 miles)

Time - My time 46:22, they say 47:15. Either way it's a PR for a 10K!

Soundtrack - Super Race Day Playlist taken from our wedding reception playlist!

• Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win - Beastie Boys
• Body Movin'-Never Gonna Get It - Beastie Boys Remix
• Let Me Clear My Throat - DJ Kool
• Young'n (Holla Back) - Fabolous
• Bang Pop - Free Energy
• No Pause - Girl Talk
• Great! There it is - Hood Internet
• Mayhem - Imelda May
• Tipsy - J Kwon
• DANCE - Justice
• Back that Ass Up - Juvenile
• Bulletproof - La Roux
• Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem
• Roll Out  - Ludacris
• Electric Feel - MGMT
• Work It - Missy Elliot
• Little Lion Man - Mumford and Sons

May 9, 2013

Today's run by the numbers:

1 Rumblin' rail, passing overhead
2 Tiny tents, hidden in garden beds
3 Pretty peacocks, beautiful and blue
4 Darling donors, this run's for you
5 Dirty dogs, eating milk and trash
6 Morning miles, not quite at a dash

Maybe I've been reading too many children's books for Arlo these days.

Today's run was a six miler dedicated to The Lawson Family, Marina, Mary and Kerrie. Thank you all for your generous donations to the NILMDTS. They appreciate the gesture and I know people will benefit as a result of your kindness. As for me, your donations forced me out the  door on a Thursday morning, something I don't normally do. Wednesday night is soccer night, so I usually skip the run the next morning. My legs were tired! I chose a fun six miler and saw some great stuff on the run.

The run starts at school and runs down a lane that is bordered by the US and Pakistani embassies. Early in the morning (before six a.m. today) there was already a line of anxious people waiting to get visas to visit the US. At the Pakistan embassy, a row of translators with typewriters at the ready, happy to help with visa documents. Then the run cuts through Nehru Park, a favorite green space of the Chanakyapuri neighborhood. As always, lots of people were there, walking, jogging, doing yoga, etc. A quick dip into the route I like to the Peacock 4 Miler, because sure enough, 3 pretty peacocks all in  row - one each on three bungalow roofs as I ran past. A shortcut underneath the railroad bridge, complete with a train passing overhead and I was in Sarojini Market.

CC: By Shashwat_Nagpal via Flickr

I like this route a lot because Sarojini is super interesting. It's a great market to visit because it is a hectic, crowded, diverse place. You have to go with a lot of patience, but when you do, it's worth it. At 6am though, it's quiet and just waking up to a long day ahead. This is where I saw the dirty dogs, eating milk. A woman had stopped at a local milk stall and was feeding the street dogs as her dog, leashed to a police tower, looked on. The Wikipedia page explains India's unique street dogs (they belong to no one, yet everyone) and this NYT blog post offers a different perspective. Luckily, they were complacent today and caused me no trouble (unlike last year, when I was bit).

I kept cruising and due to a little roundabout traveling (again caused by Delhi Metro construction) I found myself cutting through an apartment block with tiny garden areas that had been overtaken by squatter tents/shacks. I would guess that they are the homes of the servants working in the apartments. It was interesting, another reminder of the scarcity of space in a city with almost 22 million people.

The run back (a loop in Sarojini is the half-way point) included views of cows, fruit sellers and monkeys as I hoofed up a hill and back into the embassy area. All in all, a good run!

Thanks again to my donors! If you want a run and your name in lights, please visit:

https://www.coloradogives.org/forellis

RUN STATS:

Distance - 6 miles

Time - 48:52

Temp at 6am - 81 degrees F

Soundtrack - The Probers, a CD of a band from Wisconsin that played at UWEC when I was in college

Looks a little like Marvin the Martian, right?

May 8, 2013

Today I forced myself to leave my comfort zone a little bit. I skipped my run on Sunday, I skipped my hills run on Tuesday and instead of running 6 miles today, I only ran three.

But, I pushed myself to run as fast as I could. I forced myself to push since I skipped the hill workout. It's been a while since I've done a really fast short run, so I opted for a new 3.11 miler, which is of course a 5K.

The route was basically old familiar roads, and I focused on my pace. As usual, I started too hot. My first mile was 6:21, the second was 6:36 and the last 1.11 was 7:36. That put me at 20:33, just three seconds off of my all-time best for a 5K. My goal is sub-20 and I'll get there, I just need a little more inspiration and a little more restraint at the beginning.

The donations are coming in for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, thanks! I didn't see them until after school, so the first dedicated run will be tomorrow, which is normally a rest day for me. But thanks to your kind donations, I'll be out there running tomorrow morning!

If you can help, or want a dedicated training run, please visit my fundraising site:

https://www.coloradogives.org/forellis

RUN STATS:

Distance - 3 miles

Time - 20:33

Soundtrack - Summer Guide 13, repeat. I thought I updated my iPod, but I guess I didn't. Good thing it's a good mix!