Carlsbad

After a negligent month of January blogging, time to get back on the horse. What a terrific weekend I enjoyed down in San Diego at the Insulindependence world HQ (aka Nate and Pete"s house). 30+ ID supporters and friends showed up in sunny San Diego to run the Carlsbad Marathon and Half. I ran my first ever organized run in the Half. Weather was terrific to run in, the course along Pacific Coast Highway was so much different than those corn fields of Indiana I grew up in and I finished in 2:06, 6 minutes off my desired pace. My 9:37 pace should prove adequate for Ironman in November if I can keep that up. I plan to improve it. Other than some recurring knee pain that began to worsen around mile 10, my wind was very good. I feel as though I could have run the marathon if not for the leg problems. Got some great advice from "Dr." Bill Carlson that I hope to institute and avoid some of these knee issues I have been experiencing. That IT band is a pain... in more ways than one :) In the training leading up to Carlsbad, I had only gotten up to 8 miles and a couple of miles of that was walking due to the knees. So, I was pretty pleased to finish off the Half... no doubt in my mind what the training at altitude does. In training, I will typically stop every 45 minutes to test blood sugars. I abandoned that practice and just kept running on Sunday. I was a bit concerned as my pre-race BG was 96, too low for me as I always drop precipitously in the first hour. I reduced my basals an hour and half before the 7:30 start to 55% of normal. With the 96, i downed a Clif Bar and 2 bags of Sport Beans about 10 minutes before the start. The course was an out and back down PCH. At the halfway point, I felt pretty good and decided to just keep running, had to enjoy the waves crashing along the coast next to me. I gulped down water at every other Aid Station (each mile). Around mile 10, I definitely started to weaken as we ran up a hill. I began to feel like BG might be dropping, so popped a Gu gel in and grabbed a couple of orange slices at an Aid Station. As I climbed this hill, the knees began to bother me so I began walking for a bit. Somewhere around mile 11, I hear a "Hey McKendry" and get a tap on the shoulder from behind. Nero is passing me with the 3:30 pace group from the marathon... way to go Pete on the PR! That gave me enough to get back into stride and run the last 2+ miles in. Upon crossing the finish line, BG was spot on at 103. For my first serious long run, it came off pretty well. Monday and Tuesday were a struggle to walk around, but Wednesday has brought back some flexibility and I should be ready to get back on the trail by the weekend.

The run was of course surrounded by some good times at IDHQ. I was priveleged to meet folks from Boston to Minnesota to Tampa to San Diego, Steve Parker from the 2008 Triabetes team, Ryan Maloney and his family from the IronKidz program and some awesome and genuine good company. Got out Sat morning with the surfers and enjoyed an hour or two on the beach, enjoyed some time at the ID booth at the expo on Sat afternoon, and had some great food and a drinks Sat and Sun.

Need to find Nate a wetsuit... surfing in 55 degree water in swim trunks for an hour is not natural, dude :) I am still cold after watching that!

Looking forward to the next event on the schedule, the Canyonlands Half Marathon in mid-March. Until then, I need to start spending many more hours in the water. I am like dropping a rock in the water right now, but I will get that fixed!