The Months Before My Running Transformation

I had been living with my Mom, my brother, and my brother's fiance in the house I grew up in since I graduated college in May of 2011. My brother was getting married in November and started house shopping around September. I was living in the utility room in the basement while my brother was in his childhood room and his fiance was in my childhood room. I didn't mind being stuck in the utility room that much. I had everything I needed in that room, a twin bed, a dresser, a computer, a TV, and very easy access to a washer and dryer which were only about twelve feet from my bed. I had lived  on my own or with roommates the previous nine years and although I didn't mind my arrangement I was anxious to get into my own place again.

I had paid off some credit card debt and a few other bills I had left over from college and was ready to start house shopping. I was definitely ready to buy since I had home loan benefits from the VA (Veteran's Affairs). My benefits would allow me to purchase a home with no money down and not have to pay PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance). Another reason I was ready to buy was that it was a complete buyer's market. Since the whole debacle in 2008 house prices and interest rates had plummeted. I knew I was in good shape to buy. I had my friend Nick's mom, a realtor, show me around ten different houses. Nothing really struck my fancy until I came across a home online. The house had only been on the market for two days. I went and looked at it and knew it was exactly what I wanted (my mom loved it too so that helped in the decision). I put an offer down and beat out two competing offers, one of them by only a few hundred dollars.

In the thirty days before receiving the keys to my house I kept running and ran two marathons, Towpath and Columbus, described in my previous post. A few days after Columbus I received my keys and moved into the new place. I knew I didn't have any races scheduled and I was trying to get my new house organized so I pretty much stopped running altogether. If you read any of my previous posts you can probably conclude that this was the start of yet another "Winter Hibernation", a full winter and a little bit of Spring with no running whatsoever.

During the month of November I took classes and got my OHSAA (Ohio High School Athletic Association) wrestling referee's license. I figured getting involved in the sport of wrestling again would be nice and I could make a few extra bucks in the process. Throughout the Winter I continued a lifestyle of unhealthy eating and near zero physical activity with the exception of  wrestling tournaments or matches I was reffing. I felt like crap and my blood pressure was back through the roof. I was not too happy with myself that Winter and needed something to get me out of my funk.

Luckily my best friend's mother stepped in and set me up with a wonderful girl, Leigh. Leigh and I went on our first date on February 8th. We went to a Cavs game and to my surprise the Cavs manage to beat the LA Clippers without Kyrie Irving in the line-up and held Blake Griffin to only one dunk. I took that as a good sign. Leigh and I continued dating after that game and we have been together for over a year now. She has become the love of my life and been a great motivation to me to get my act together in the area of health and fitness.

During the Winter Leigh was regularly working out and attending boot camp workout sessions at her gym. She had signed up for a 5K race in April and was very excited about it. I was very familiar with that pre race excitement and knew I needed to get back out on the road. So I started running again around late March or early April. Leigh's 5K was the third Saturday in April and I think she really wanted me to run it with her. I told her that I was too out of shape and didn't want to be embarrassed running super slow in a race and being completely out of breath. She probably thought the real reason I didn't want to run it was my pride in doing races that are no less than 26.2 miles, but at that point in time it really was because of the whole out of shape thing.

I took to my normal "shaking off the rust" routine of short 2-3 mile runs around my neighborhood during the evening hours. I chose to run during darkness when I was out of shape on purpose. The main reason for this was I didn't want people to see me struggling on a run. I have always been a bigger guy and hated the fact that people would automatically judge how good of shape I was in strictly based on my appearance. Now don't get me wrong at some points I was nothing more than a big out of shape guy, but a lot of times I was an big guy running marathons. Things like that have always bugged me a little bit.

Before college I spent four years in the Marine Corps. I was lucky enough to join with a good friend of mine I grew up with, Austin. We managed to spend three of our four years in the Corps together and when we got out lived and went to college together. After spending a little time at school I put on some weight and Austin maintained his weight as always did. Austin and I would go out often at school with our friends and as two former Marines we were proud of our service and also thought it was a good way to impress the ladies. Well a situation that happened several times always bugged me a little bit. Austin would tell a girl that he was a Marine and he normally received of a response of "Oh wow you were a Marine. That is awesome." I would do the same but the response I always got was "You, were a Marine???"

Once I was in a little better shape I would run right after work or early mornings in the daylight. It probably sounds silly, me worrying about what someone driving by or walking by me thinks, but I guess I have a lot of time to think about stuff like that when I am out there running. Chances are someone passing by me isn't giving anything thought to my presence at all let alone thinking I was an out of shape fat guy. Oh well, we all have our quirks and that is one of mine. After Leigh had signed up for her race and I started running again I was ready to sign up for some races of my own. I really wanted to run at least three marathons in the coming Fall. I had done three marathons in the Fall of 2010 and really enjoyed it. I ended up signing up for the Towpath Marathon, Columbus Marathon, and Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I had run all three of these races before and really liked the courses, but the main reason for selecting those specific races came down to geographic location and cost.

The Towpath marathon starts and finishes about half hour drive from my house. That meant I could drive there race and drive back and still have the rest of my day to do whatever. The Columbus marathon is only about a two hour drive from my house and one of my best friends Shaun lets me stay at his place which is conveniently close to the race. And in Indianapolis my cousin usually runs the marathon with me and happens to live there so I stay with him. I am always trying to save a buck when I can so only having to pay for gas and registration was perfect.

I had signed up for the races but still had a long way to go. I was struggling to complete three miles without walking some. I eventually started to add some longer runs on the weekends to my "shaking off the rust" regiment. I was planning on starting a 17 week training program that led up to the Towpath marathon on October 7th, but had a few weeks until that program started. I figured I would get in decent enough shape to not struggle when I started the program. I was in my new house and looked around for some local spots to run. I found a couple of good spots.

The first was the Bradley Woods Reservation, part of the Cleveland Metro Parks system. It is one of the smaller reservations in the system, but it is great for short runs. You can easily get up to a 6 mile run in at the reservation by utilizing all of the trails. There is around a mile of paved multi-purpose trail and around 5 miles of dirt trail to run. The majority of the dirt trails are flat and have some tree roots running through them and are good for smooth and fast trail running. These trails seem to hold a lot of water during rain and snow, so if you run on them within a week of either be prepared for some wet feet.

Trails at Bradley Woods

Another great spot I found was the Bridegeway Trail in Elyria, OH. I refer to it as a whole the Bridegeway Trail, but it is actually a combination of three trails that flow together seamlessly: the High Meadows - Bur Oak Connector Trail, the Bridgeway Trail, and the Steel Mill Trail.This trail is a paved multi-purpose trail with a one way length of around 6 miles. You can add another half mile by running a small dirt trail, the Waterfall Loop, that takes you by two waterfalls.

The bridgeway trail is extremely scenic and unique. The trail is named for its several bridges along the way that give you great views of the Black River and surrounding area. The trail is flat for the most part, but has a few climbs and descents. The two big elevation changes occur between the connector trail and trail and the Bridgeway Trail, as you drop underneath the Interstate 90 bridges, and in between the Bridgeway trail and the Steel Mill Trail at the park at Day's Dam. There are also signs along the way with historical facts and wildlife information about the area. I spoke with a park worker one day and he said there are plans to extend trail all the way to downtown Lorain which should add probably another 4 miles or so.

Bridges on the Bridegeway Trail

The Steel Mill Trail is a very unique trail as it runs along slag fields from the nearby steel mills. Slag is a by-product of the steel making process. It is essentially the impurities that are separated out from the iron in ore. Slag has several uses, but one major use is in cement. As you head North on the trail the slag fields line the East side. It reminds me of a sort of no man's land. There are heaps of slag everywhere and all kinds of other debris such as bricks and cinder blocks. For some reason it always makes me think of World War I articles I have read and movies I have seen where trenches are separated by desolate land that has been hammered with artillery shells and bombs. On the West side of the trail is the Black River. Beyond the river you can see a steel mill and Day's Dam. Eventually you end up at the end of the trail that exits on route 611 near Parker Marine, Inc. a shop and Winter storage facility for boats. There is a boat launch and lift where Lake Erie boaters can drop their boats off for Winter storage after following a 3.5 mile river from the Lake.

Between the months of April and June I stuck to shorter runs. They were slow and usually left me out of breath and taking walking breaks. I had a lot of extra weight on me and hadn't run since the Fall. I try not to overdo it after my hibernation periods. I start with two to three days a week of running two to three miles. I do that for two or three weeks and then throw in a weekend long run of around six miles. After that I spend a few weeks running three miles three times a week with a long run of six miles or more on the weekend. In about two months I am ready to start some sort of training schedule. This year was no different I followed that routine and kicked off an 17 week training program in June. The program would end with me running the Towpath Marathon on October 7th. I was ready to get back into my usual routine and run the Fall marathons. I didn't know it at the time but in the months following I would transform myself into a whole new runner.

Towpath and Columbus 2011

In May of 2011 I had moved back home to Cleveland from Toledo. I was living with my mom for a while to pay off some debt and save some money. I had started a new job as a software engineer on May 23rd. A lot of people are sad to leave college life behind, but I was happy to be done with it. Don't get me wrong I see where those people are coming from, I mean who is really unhappy about going to parties, attending a class here and there, and having minimal responsibilities? Since I had spent four years in the Marines Corps I was already 27 years old by the time I graduated college. I was ready to be done with school and have a real job where I could make some money.

I knew that having a job would provide a much more regimented schedule than anything I had at college. It would force me to have regular sleeping hours and keep me from wandering to the fridge when  I was bored during the day. I knew those two things alone would help me shed some weight and in turn improve my running. I was happy to run back in my old neighborhood like I had when I was in junior and high school trying to lose weight and get some extra cardio in for wrestling. Running there brought back memories of biking through the neighborhood, going to swim at the community pool, and sneaking down to my friend Shaun's house late at night to hang out.

I was still pretty hefty from school, weighing in at about 265lbs. I wanted to try and be at least 250 by the time the Towpath marathon rolled around in October. That Summer I was following my favorite training program, Hal Higdon's Novice 1 Schedule. I have always liked the structure of his program. It is pretty simple: short runs (anywhere from 3-5 miles) on Tuesday and Thursdays, moderate distance runs (anywhere from 3-10 miles) on Wednesdays, and Long runs (anywhere from 6-20 miles) on Saturdays. Follow the link to get a clearer picture of the schedule. I still follow a similar pattern presently however I pick my own distances and do 20 milers often on weekends.

It was a very hot summer that year and I remember doing a few runs in 100 degree temperatures. During the week I would get home from work and try and get a little yard work or something done at my mom's house and then go running later in the evening to try and avoid running directly in the sunlight. I would run the short runs and any moderate distance run up to five miles in my mom's neighborhood. I had 3, 4, and 5 mile routes that I followed throughout the development. Once my Wednesday runs got longer than 5 miles I started going to the metroparks on my way from work.

If you have ever been to Cleveland you may know we are lucky enough to enjoy a great parks system throughout the area. Cleveland is located in Cuyahoga County which boasts one of most interconnected park systems in the US, sometimes referred to as the "Emerald Necklace". The name was given to the park system because on a map of the Cleveland area the parks create a green semi-circle around the city that resemble a necklace around a person's neck.

Cleveland's "Emerald Necklace" of Metroparks

Since moving back to the area I have explored many of the trails throughout these parks. I have spent the most time on the All-purpose paved trail and bridal trails in the Mill Stream Run Reservation spanning from Berea to Brecksville. Berea was the perfect starting location for me because it was only about ten minutes from my mom's house and about 5 minutes off of the highway on the way home from work. I really enjoyed running there. During the early morning runs I took on Saturdays I would see a lot of the same people running every week. I gave most of them nicknames in my head and would look forward to waving and saying Good Morning to them on my runs. There was "Old but fit couple", "Asian Guy" (I hope that doesn't sound racist but he was the only Asian guy out there so that is how I identified him. I am sure I was "Long-haired White Guy" or "Chubby White Guy" to him), "Neon Jacket Guy", "Weird Prescription Goggle Sweatshirt and Sweatpants Guy" (Only weird because it was the middle of Summer and he would be in Winter clothes), and "My Boss". Definitely not clever nicknames, mostly literal descriptions of the people, especially the last one I mentioned. "My Boss" was literally my manager from work.

My manager, now my former manager, is also a distance runner. He normally runs the same part of the park as I do except we start at opposite ends. We would usually pass each other at some point during our Saturday runs. We never shared very much conversation out on the runs, but it was always nice to see a familiar face, and of course then we would have something to talk about at work on Monday other than work itself. He was also a Navy veteran so between the running and military service we had some things in common. That helped make work a lot more and enjoyable and gave me something to look forward to on Mondays.

The Summer went by fast and before I knew it Fall had arrived. I was pretty satisfied with my running, but very disappointed in my diet. The fact was I didn't follow a diet at all. I ate and drank what I wanted, when I wanted. I was around 255 lbs. and knew I would make my goal of 250 by the Towpath marathon, but I knew I could have done even better than that. I told myself it was a little too late to be concerned with my diet (which is never true) and kept eating whatever I wanted. My runs didn't seem to suffer from my diet, but I never really got any faster or had an easier time finishing the distance over those months of training.

Weight on Race Day: 251 lbs.
The Towpath marathon arrived before I knew it. The race was held on Sunday, October 9th, 2011. The Towpath marathon is held in Peninsula, OH right at the Boston Mills and Brandywine ski resorts (about the only two places to ski or snowboard in Northern Ohio). There is also a half marathon run in conjunction with the full marathon. The half marathon runners start at Brandywine ski resort, a few miles behind the start of the full marathon at Boston Mills ski resort. The full marathoners run a short distance down the road and run past the finish line where they enter the Towpath heading South. The half marathoners follow a few miles behind, but turn and head North on the Towpath.

The full marathoners go out about eight and a half miles, turn around, and come back in past the finish again where they head North on the towpath for another out and back that totals around eight miles and ends up at the finish line. The half marathoners only do the out and back portion that heads North on the towpath.

Towpath Marathon and Half Marathon Course

The course itself is very scenic as it follows the Cuyahoga River. The path takes runners under very high level interstate bridges and past old canal locks used to float boats upstream. There is also a long section of wetland where runners travel over a long wooden bridge that is very low to the water. The path is mostly finely crushed stone and dirt and is a great surface for running.

Crossing a bridge at Towpath

I was happy to be running another race that Sunday as it had been around a year since my last marathon. The weather was almost perfect. At the start of the race the temperature was around 50 degrees and steadily rose to around 75 degrees by the time I finished. The average humidity was around 72%. I say almost perfect because I love to run in temperatures in the 50s, but by the halfway point of the race it was nearing the mid 60s. The last half of the marathon was a hot and sunny and probably slowed me down a little bit.

I was hoping to turn in a better time but I think the heat kept that from happening. I still managed to stay under the five hour mark and finished at 4:55:50. That was about twenty minutes off of my best time, but I knew I hadn't been training as hard as the previous year so I wasn't shocked. I had seven days until Columbus and was hoping to turn in a better time there.

Columbus might be my favorite marathon to run. At the time of this writing I have run the Columbus marathon four times. Columbus is a beautiful city that is well maintained and full of life. I think the race currently boasts about 22,000 runners, around 7,000 running the full marathon and 15,000 running the half. Since getting into trail racing I have found that I like races with very small fields. The smaller the better in fact. 60-300 runners is perfect for me. Columbus has a large field, but it seems to spread out fairly quick. Since there are way more people running the half marathon after 13.1 miles you feel like you are in a much smaller race. It seems to be a good balance, you get the hustle and bustle in the first half and you get some quieter miles in the second half to put your mind to work and grind out the miles.

One of the great things about the Columbus course is the amount of musical acts along the way. There are usually thirty plus bands and/or solo acts along the course. There are also some DJs and houses that have sound systems playing music throughout the course. The fans are great along the way and cheer their hearts out for the runners. Around the 17 mile mark or so the course runs through the Ohio State university campus. This is a nice and mostly quiet part of the race as students are practically non-existent most likely sleeping off the previous night's exploits. Another part of the campus section that I have always enjoyed is running around the outside of the Horseshoe, the Buckeye's football stadium. In 2012 they modified the course so runners actually run through the stadium.

Weight on race day: 250 lbs.
The seven days since the Towpath marathon passed quickly and I found myself back at the Columbus starting line for the third time in my life. The weather was perfect as it usually is on race day in Columbus. It was around 50 degrees at the start of the race rising to around 61 degrees when I finished the race. The humidity was also very low with an average around 57%. I couldn't have asked for better weather, anywhere in the 50 degree range seems to be the weather I perform best in.

I was hoping to have a better race than the previous week and maybe even set a new personal record. I knew it was possible to run more than twenty minutes faster just a week later because I had accomplished a similar feat in 2010. In October of 2010 I ran the Chicago marathon in 5:16:44 and seven days later manage to run a PR of 4:35:47, a more than forty minute improvement. I was looking to repeat a performance like that again this year.

Getting ready to go and pound some pavement in Columbus

The race eventually started and we were off and running. I was feeling pretty good just a few miles in but I needed to go to the bathroom. The problem was every time I passed a port-a-potty there was a line of runners waiting to use it. This is a pretty common theme at marathons and you will see runners peel off the course and pee behind bushes or fences or sometimes behind nothing as a solution to the problem. I knew I wouldn't get into a port-a-potty anytime soon so I ducked off the course into a small patch of woods that seemed popular with the other runners. I took care of the issue was back on the course with a minimal time loss.

I was looking forward to the halfway mark when the half marathon runners peeled off to the finish and the field thinned out significantly. I eventually made it to that point about two hours and thirteen minutes after I had started. I wasn't ecstatic about that time because I knew even if I ran the exact same time on the second half I would come in only three minutes under my existing PR and seeing as I have never run a second half even remotely close to the same time as a first half I knew that a new PR was highly unlikely. Regardless I still knew I had a great chance of beating my Towpath time from the previous week and pushed on.

During races I like to pick out landmarks (if I know the area) or mileage marks and tell myself how nice it will be when I get to that point. For example at the halfway point in this race I told myself "just make it to the Horseshoe stadium on campus and you will be alright." The stadium was somewhere around the 18 mile mark. I told myself that if I could just get there I would only have eight miles to go and single digit mileage is nothing. It gave something to look forward too on the course and I would think more about the stadium than the running, even if all getting to the stadium meant was just more running.

After some time I was running on a slight decline toward the stadium. It was great to see it. I ran around it, through the parking lot, and then it was gone. Time for a new mark to set my sights on. I chose the twenty mile mark as my next big thing to look forward to. It was only about two miles away form the stadium and there is just always something nice about crossing that mile marker.
I hit mile twenty at 3:30:53. At that point I knew I would have to run ten minute miles for the next 6.2 miles to beat my PR. It wasn't going to happen, but I could run 13:30 miles and still beat my time from the previous week, and that was completely doable.

I managed to run the last 6.2 miles at a 12:04 minute per mile pace and finish at 4:45:37. I was happy to beat the Towpath time but disappointed I couldn't set a PR in 2011. I didn't have any other races scheduled for the year and planned to dial back on the running for the Winter.  I ended up doing zero running between November 2011 and March 2012. this was a mistake I had made several times in the past. Winter Hibernation. I enjoy being lazy as much as I do being active and it turns out that is not a good thing if you want to set PRs in distance running.

During the month of February I signed up for several marathons in the coming Fall. I knew I would have to get off of my butt come Spring time. That ended up being exactly what I did. 2012 ended up being my biggest running year yet. I will be talking about it in posts to come.