If it’s not one thing, it’s another, really. My lungs are finally recovered to the point where running feels good again. I did an 8K on Sunday and I felt energized at the end of it. No huffing and puffing. It was great… except for my lower back. I’ve had this issue for a couple years now, and it’s been one of the reasons that I always quit after a few months. I started seeing a sports masseuse earlier this year in an attempt to fix it. That made the problem bearable, but no matter what we did, it didn’t seem to right it completely. In fact, in the past week or so it’s progressed to the point where I’m feeling pain even when I’m not running. So this morning, it was off to a proper physiotherapist. I saw Michael at the Sports Clinic at Sydney Uni, and it turns out he’s an expert at this type of thing. He confirmed the diagnosis that my pelvis was pretty far out of alignment. (Like, centimeters out.) This biomechanical issue is the source of just about all my running complaints: back pain, tight hips, pinched sciatic nerve, tight hamstrings, hunched gait, etc. So he set about putting things back in place. There was much pulling-of-legs and manipulating-of-joints, and it all ended with a lovely session under a heating pad. I noticed some immediate changes: I could touch my toes without pain, and my hamstrings were able to stretch a lot farther. Michael gave me some stretches to do at home, and he’s restricted me to shorter runs for the next few days. He says that normally I’ll regress a third of the way back, so I’m seeing him on Monday for further correction. I can’t wait to see if this gives me a breakthrough in my speed and performance!

I haven’t been having great runs in the past week. The weather’s been crappy; my back is sore; and I’m still fighting this nagging cough. It’s hard to get out of bed early in the morning. I tried running on my lunch break on Tuesday (since we have a shower in the building), but North Sydney is HILLY and I felt stupid having wet hair all afternoon. I’m just not feeling a lot of excitement about my training right now. I guess I’m still in my post-Big Race depression period. That said, I got a big boost talking to my Mom the other night. Not only did Joe run a 5K recently, but the whole family did the Sunburst Fitness 5K Walk last weekend. How awesome is that? Mom also mentioned that she’s on Week 2 of the Couch to 5K podcasts, with a goal of running her own 5K later this summer. Isn’t that fantastic? I’m so proud of them, and I’m humbled to think that I might have been part of their inspiration.

Last night I registered myself and the Snook for our third consecutive City 2 Surf. I wanted to get in early so we don’t have to start in the Back of the Pack. My goal is to break 100 minutes this year, so avoiding the gorillas, baby strollers, and budgie smugglers should help with that. Now I just have to get excited about training again…

I went for a short half-hour run this morning. I’m still not back at 100% health. It’s really annoying. I’ve got this perpetual feeling that I can’t quite clear my throat, and it makes it difficult to breathe easily when I’m running.

I’ve started planning my events for the rest of the year. Here’s what I’ve got:

• July 27 – Bay Run (7km)
• August 10 – City 2 Surf (14km)
• September 21 – Sydney Running Festival (9km or 21km)
• October 12 – Melbourne Half Marathon (21km)

Here’s my question: How the heck do I train for these? Do I just follow a training plan for the half-marathon and do the other events as I come to them? Hal Higdon‘s “novice” plan for the Half-Marathon (which I used before) goes for 12 weeks, while Jeff Galloway‘s “timed goal” plan goes for 15. (At least, I think it does. It also includes two weeks past your goal event.) If I use the Galloway, I’d need to start by June 23rd at the latest. What do I do between now and then? Or I guess I could start now and stretch out the plan by another three weeks. Will I be overtraining for the race then? I’d really like to hear from any other runners how they’d approach planning out these next five months…

Also: Congratulations to my stepfather Joe, who ran his first 5K race in a long time this past week! And my mom’s going to do a 5K walk with him next week. I’m really glad that I could inspire them to get out there.

Oh, nice! Jeff and Allan over at the Running with the Pack podcast congratulated me on my half-marathon finish in their most recent episode. Thanks, guys!

Official Results: I just ran out to get the morning paper and check the results. I finished in 156:59, which is just shy of two hours and 37 minutes. (As Allan mentioned in the comments below, that means I averaged a twelve minute per mile pace for the whole thing.) I placed 5979th out of 6032 finishers… which means I was in the bottom 1%. But you know what? This race was marketed as Australia’s “most prestigious restricted entry running event,” and I was in the company of serious runners. I’m just happy to have been out there with them.

I did it!
Thank you so much to everybody who wished me well. This was for Snookums, and my sister, and my whole family, and all my friends (especially Miss Fee, Eileen, Emily, Tricia, Max, Emma, Hoey, and Michelle), Coby at Muscle Medicine, Jeff and Allan over at Running with the Pack, Brandon of Brandon’s Marathon, everybody who gave me advice at AskMetaFilter, and everyone who cheered me on and sent me messages and said I could do it. You guys all ROCK.

Okay, so you want to hear the nitty-gritty details, right? (Full iPod log here.) I felt pretty good this morning. I got a decent night’s sleep (despite a crazy dream that I’d written a Joomla plugin to create a half-marathon object), and I had half a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. I was feeling a bit antsy. When we got to the park, my spirits fell a bit upon seeing all the hard-core runners warming up. It’s a sobering thought to look around and realize that EVERYONE ELSE YOU SEE is way fitter than you. (Turns out there were people there less fit than me, but I didn’t spot them till later.) I parted ways with the Snook early, wanting a little time to myself getting ready. I made some friends in the line for the Port-a-Potty. I stretched. I checked my supplies: iPod in one pocket, jelly babies and Powerbar Gel in the other. I self-seeded pretty far towards the back. The weather was beautiful. (Suck it, meteorologists!). And we were off!

The first couple kilometers were mostly downhill through the city. I felt much better than I did on my previous couple of runs. I don’t know if it was the inhaler I’ve been using or the enforced rest, but the run felt a lot easier than it did last week. I cruised through the first 4.5km, only walking when I hit the first water station. I was watching my pace on the iPod pretty closely, since I was obsessed with making the 75min cutoff. To my delight, I soon realized that the iPod was under-reporting my distance a little bit! (Like, when I hit the 5km mark, the iPod only thought I’d gone 4.9k.) That meant that my actual speed was better than I thought. Eventually I’d built up enough of a “buffer” that I knew I was going to make it. We doubled-back into the city and I saw Snookums at about the 7km mark. I grinned and waved and stuck my tongue out. “I’m going to make it!” I said. The next 4km were through the Domain, but I’m pretty comfortable running there. I passed Snookums again as I started my second lap. A block later, I passed the all important 11km mark at exactly 75:00. I was in a pack of girls at that point and we all cheered for each other. (I realized later that they were extremely lenient with the cutoff. I know for a fact that there were people who finished more than half an hour behind me.)

Okay, so the second lap? HELL. I was cheered by the fact that I’d met my #1 goal (one that I’d been obsessing about for six months), but the prospect of running for another 80 minutes was just crushing. Still, I knew I could walk now if I needed to. At about the 14km mark… I realized I was starting to “bonk”. My legs just felt so dead I could barely lift them. I knew there was a water station coming up, so I went for the Powerbar Gel. It probably took 10 minutes to kick in, during which I shuffled and walked as best I could. “I think I’m hitting the wall,” I said to another girl as we neared the Harbour Bridge. “Do you have sugar?” she asked. “I’m good,” I said. “Just waiting for it to digest.” Eventually I felt like I had a little more gas in the tank, but not much. When I saw Snookums at the 17km mark, I was hurting. “Only 4 more to go…” he told me. I headed into the Domain again. It was killer. The sun was hot. The field was extremely thin at that point (I’d been lapped by the race winners before I was even halfway through) but there were still a number of people that I could see behind me. I know it shouldn’t matter, but knowing that I was going to finish and that I wasn’t going to be dead last cheered me up. I walked a lot of those last hills. As I came back up near the Art Gallery, I passed a few people who were still pushing onwards in the other direction (meaning they were a good distance behind me). We all clapped and cheered each other on. I could hear the roar of the crowds at the finish line and a man’s voice on the loudspeaker. “Are they saying people’s names?!” I wondered. I pulled off my headphones as I came around the fountain in Hyde Park, smiling as Snookums took a last photo. “And here comes… Kristine Howard up to the finish line. Any relation to Johnnie?” “NO RELATION!” I yelled as I crossed the line. I did it. I was done. My time was probably around 2:35 or so, which I’m extremely happy with. A nice old guy took my timing chip off my shoe for me, and I collected my medal. Then it was over to Snookums for a much-needed hug and some water. I was surprisingly upbeat, considering how much my legs and back hurt. We made our way home.

Continue on for the photos.
The starting line as witnessed by the Snook. I was way, way behind these guys.

More than halfway through the first lap, probably about 7km or so. I was happy because I knew I was going to make the cutoff.

I always give the thumbs up in race photos. I don’t know why. And I stuck out my tongue because I was feeling so good.

Starting the second lap. The reality of running another 10km was starting to set in.

I’m about 50m from the finish line at this point, and I just want it to be OVER.

Snookums and I pose for a photo moments after collecting my medal. (I like how the old guy in the background is covering his nose. It may well be because of how STINKY I was at that point.)

Done. I made it. It was so, so hard.

I think the hardest part for me – and specifically WHY it’s good for me to do this – is clearing your mind and focusing on the here and now. (As Yoda might say, “Never her mind on where she was! What she was doing!”) As soon as I made the time cutoff, I found myself planning the thank-yous I would make in my victorious blog post. “NO! NOT. DONE. YET.” It was a continual struggle to “run the mile that I was in” and not get distracted thinking about how much was left or what I was going to do afterwards. It’s definitely the aspect I think I need to work on most in the future.

Anyway, that’s it. Six months ago I made a plan to start running and train for this sucker, and today I did it. Thanks for coming along with me for the ride.

(And you people who run the full marathon? YOU’RE INSANE.)

The Snook and I got up at the butt-crack of dawn this morning to head to the Domain for the 2008 Mother’s Day Classic 8K race. (That’s five miles for the non-metric.) We ran it together before in 2006, but the Snook wasn’t running this year; he was my support staff. We met up with Fiona and her running buddy Jan-Maree (and the Sock Victim, who was also there strictly for moral support). The girls strapped on their timing chips and started stretching, while the boys huddled for warmth and talked about computer stuff. I felt cautiously optimistic. My cold is mostly gone from my head, but my lungs are still fighting it off. My goals were to run the whole thing, and to finish at a better than 7:00/km pace (which is what I need for the half-marathon next weekend). The gun fired and we were off. As usual, there was a huge crush at the beginning so I lost the other two girls pretty quickly. (I figure I’m tall, so it’s always the other person’s responsibility to spot me.) I settled into my pace pretty easily, but I could immediately tell this was going to be a slog. Before I caught the cold last week, my shorter distance runs had been starting to feel really easy and effortless. I’d been hoping to feel like that today, but instead I felt like I was really gasping for oxygen. (I’m guessing that was the effect of the cold on my lungs.) I had a stitch threatening from about the 5K mark. I really, really wanted to take a walk break on the 2nd lap, but I told myself how great it was going to feel to run the whole thing. On the last steep hill, I put my head down and channeled Steve Runner, chanting in my head “I eat hills for breakfast. I EAT HILLS FOR BREAKFAST.” It wasn’t fast, but I made it up that sucker. Coming down the path towards the finish line, I spotted the Snook and the Sock Victim waiting at the bottom. I managed to croak to the Snook: “Haven’t stopped yet!” I was so focused on that thought that I didn’t even realize he was filming me. I didn’t have much left in the tank, but I managed a tiny sprint towards the finish line. And then I was done! I’d met my two goals: I ran the whole thing (my longest continuous run to date), and according to the iPod I averaged 6:50/km (which is exactly what I need to do for the first 11K next week). The other two girls finished a couple minutes behind, and we all congratulated each other over apples and some much-needed water.

Jan-Maree, Me, and Miss Fee (along with Jan-Maree’s two girls) before the race. So much pink!

Somehow I missed the Snook on my first lap, but he caught this picture of my back as I zoomed past him.

Miss Fee and Jan-Maree, not far behind me, give a wave to the boys as they finish their first lap.

Here I am checking my iPod time immediately after crossing the finish line.

Sweaty but happy to be done!

I’d meant for this race to give me confidence going into the half-marathon next week, but honestly, I think I feel more scared than ever. I just wish my lungs would clear up as soon as possible so I can get in one or two more “good-feeling” runs…

I’ve given this blasted cold four days of rest, with no running or swimming in that time. Thursday I started to feel a lot better though, so today I decided enough was enough. I put on my new shoes, zipped up a hoodie for extra warmth, and headed out for a slow, easy run through the neighborhood. I did 25 minutes of jogging without stopping, and though it didn’t feel as easy as some of my recent runs, it wasn’t too difficult either. I didn’t start hacking or coughing or anything. And the burgeoning sinus headache I’d felt when I woke up? Completely disappeared. (If you’d told me six months ago that running could actually make me feel better, I’d never have believed you.) I’m still planning to do the Mother’s Day 8K on Sunday, but I’m not going to kill myself trying to get a PB or anything. It’s all about Sunday the 18th, and my goal right now is just to hold it together for nine more days and give myself the best chance to finish the half-marathon.

Oh. And my race pack came in the mail last night. I’ve got my official race number (#508, baby! I must have gotten in early) and my timing chip. Seeing them on the dining room table suddenly made it all seem very real. Nine more days.

The good – actually GREAT – news is that I know I can run a half-marathon. I know this because I successfully ran 18.4km yesterday afternoon! (That’s nearly 11.5 miles.) And at the end, I honestly felt like I could’ve easily gone all the way to 21km, were it not for my sore back. I ran the distance pretty slowly (you’ll see why in a minute), taking frequent walk breaks and not pushing too hard. Still, I wasn’t far off the pace I need to finish in 2:30. I was well-hydrated and carried a water bottle with me, which I sipped on frequently. I also had my first trial of using an energy supplement. At the 6km mark, I had half a chocolate PowerBar gel and then finished it off at the 12km mark. It tasted like medicated chocolate toothpaste. The biggest effect it seemed to have was mental. At the end of the run, I just felt a lot more clear-headed than I had at the same point last week. I never realized how fuzzy and muddled my brain gets after 90 minutes of running. This time I just felt way more energetic and aware. With regards to my body, I didn’t notice any immediate jolt or anything, but I definitely had more energy in the tank at the end of this run. Like I said, I was honestly toying with going the whole distance. I was still tired and sore, but I didn’t feel like I was falling apart. (I’m also happy to report that the gel didn’t give me any stomach problems, as some people seem to have. I did get a bad stitch at the 7km mark, which I attributed to gulping down too much water to help digest the gel.) So all in all, this was a massive confidence boost before the race in two weeks.

And now the bad news. I’ve caught a cold. I’d been coughing a bit at night last week, but I assumed it was just irritation from the endoscopy. Sunday morning I woke up with the trifecta of headache, sore throat, and stuffy nose. Great. I spent the whole day sucking down water and trying to decide whether I should go for the run or not. I knew that the timing wasn’t that bad, because I’ve got two weeks to shake this thing before the actual race. But this was pretty much my last chance for a really long run, and I felt like I really needed that to mentally prepare. So would running make it worse? Since all my symptoms were “above the neck” (classic runner’s justification), I decided to go for it. So I dosed up on paracetamol and headed out. I took it easy on the run but I was happy to find that I still felt pretty good. My stomach got a little acidic but it was manageable. I even braved a few minutes in an ice bath when I got home to help out my legs. I feel pretty awful today, but I’m still glad I did it. Now I just have to concentrate on getting well as soon as possible. Anybody got any good home remedies for a cold?

I feel great. I wanted to skip my swimming lesson last night, but the Snook urged me to go. I’m glad I listened to him. It felt good to get back to my training and stop letting my stomach dictate my life. This morning I headed out for my first run of the week, an easy 5K around the neighbourhood before work. Along the way I listened to the most recent episode of Phedippidations, which Steve recorded during this past Monday’s Boston Marathon. How hard-core is that?! He was running on an injured ankle (which he himself admits wasn’t very smart), but he persevered and finished in less than five hours. It was really inspiring to listen to his updates every mile and to marvel at how far he was pushing himself. Yes, his podcasts get a little cheesy and self-important at times with all the affirmations and cosmic hoo-ha, but when I’m out running, that really appeals to me. And dude, if/when I ever finish my first marathon, I’m sure I’ll hear the Carmina Burana playing in my head too…

Anyway, at the end of the podcast Steve mentioned the World Wide Half Marathon. The idea is that people around the world sign up to run a half-marathon (or a 5K) sometime around the weekend of October 11-12. I was checking the Cool Running calendar to see what’s on that month… and I discovered that the Melbourne Marathon (and half marathon) is that weekend. Sounds like a plan right? I can’t wait to do a lap inside the MCG!