Race Log!

Haven't had too much time to update the blog recently! 1 day until the race. It starts at 6 am on Saturday (5/16) and here is the link to the race log that Hannah will be updating!

Click Here to go to Race Log!

Total on the day -

Distance - 9.4 miles

Total on the day -

Distance - 10 miles
Time - 76 minutes

Just a few more steps . .

This week life's events just come together into a big ball of madness and its one of those times where you're not really sure how everything gets done but somehow it just does, and then you realize you haven't slept for like 3 days. Exams, running, projects, work will rule my life this week and once 10 AM on May 12th rolls around there will only be one things left to think about, the keys. In fact, there will be 2 things to think about, the other one being Carol Lee Donuts.

I got my last shipment of race gear in the other day, 3 blinking LED lights that were on back order. Just one more reason to run fast in the race, I tested JUST ONE of them out and it really makes concentrating on anything just that much harder, in fact with all three of them turned on its going to be like some european rave out there on the 7 mile bridge.

This week the last aspect of the training will be getting my body used to being up at 6 am. However with exams and all the other fun exciting school things that happen within the last week of school I think it might be more accurate that 6 am will be my bed time but we'll see what happens.
Wanted to give a shout out to Lisa, Bohon, Gretchen and Evan for getting me some good songs! I like them all and I'm getting excited about this playlist!!

Heres what we've got so far!

The Decemberists - O Valencia
David Bazan - How I Remember
John Butler Trio - Funky Tonight
Toto - Africa
Tone Loc - Funky Cold Medina
Coldplay - Fix You
Third Eye Blind - Motorcycle Drive By
T Pain - Church
and 2 cd's full of jam packed goodness!

Total on the day -

Distance - 10 miles

The faster you run the harder it is for the mosquitoes to catch you . .

We went down to Gainesville, Florida this weekend for my sisters graduation from grad school. Cheers to Hannah for becoming a doctor! After being stuck in airports and having canceled flights for almost 12 hours on the way down, I finally arrived with a fever. Slept it off that night and participated in all of the graduation activities on Saturday! After the food coma from lunch started setting in and then following the watching of the sensational win by Mine That Bird in the Kentucky Derby, I figured it was time to go out for a little run. It had been a few days, as this past week I had lots of exams and projects due and what better time to do it then actually being in Florida!

Figuring it was about time I try out all my gear for a longer run, after taking about 10 minutes to get it all on I was ready to go (or go find my camel as Mark might say). Heading out the first mile or two was like trying to make homemade ice cream, the gears were just not turning so easily. After getting a little loosened up I was cruisin though. Felt great to be outside, felt great to be running by things I had never run by before, felt good to explore the city of Gainesville. I stopped about 5 miles into the run and walked for 1oo yards, at this point covered in sweat. When I started again I felt cold? This new material I was running in is amazing, granted the sun was going down so it was getting cooler, it was still 77 degrees, and I was cold. Sauna training is paying off big time.

If there's one thing I can't stand from all the camping trips and hiking explorations I've been on, it's that high pitched buzzing sound of a mosquito in your ear. Maybe thats why I started running fast/hiking fast, who knows. Well I figured out right quick that in Florida, mosquitoes do not fly at 8.0 miles an hour, so if I just keep running, well thats enough motivation for me.

The hardest part about the run, as I had guessed, was the flat/straight/boring pitch that I was running on. As much training on the treadmill as I've done, its still a whole different ball game looking out there in front of you and all you see is sidewalk, for miles, and miles. This being said, I can only imagine whats going to be going through my head once I get to mile 53 of the race and have to cross the 7 mile bridge without support crew help.

Here is my solution and I'm going to leave it up to those of you reading my blog to help me here. I've asked a few people already in person, and gotten some great responses and even a few cd's already :-) For anyone who wants to participate I want to know everyones favorite song (now I know for some of us its hard to pinpoint one, so if you can't make up your mind between 2 or 3, go ahead and let me know them all!). It can be your favorite workout song, or just your favorite song in general. Collectively I will put together a mix of all the songs on my mp3 player and play that during the race while I am running. Probably the easiest way to do this would be just send me an email at mccoyan@vt.edu with the title as Favorite Song or something along those lines, don't leave out your name either! I'd like to know who they are all from because thinking about my family and friends is one of the things that keeps me going so when your song comes on during the race you know who ill be thinking about! Looking forward to hearing all the different tastes!

Total on the day -

Distance - 8.21 miles
Temp - 82 degrees at 45% humidity (Temp is about the same as keys, humidity will be double)

Race Gear is Here!

This is the day...this is the day...this is the day THAT ALL THE RACE GEAR COMES! So for the last 3 days I haven't been able to stay off the UPS.com "Track my Package" feature watching my race gear come across the country from California. The most exciting part that I just managed to find out yesterday is that you can call UPS and they will actually send you a text message about where your package is at! It's like knowing where Santa Clause is or something, unreal!
Having 2 exams today I tried to tell myself that I would not open my race gear until they were over but when the man in brown showed up around 11:00 I just could not help myself, I immediately put it all on and went for a run. Wow, everything felt so light and the Cool Max shirt was so breathable I felt like I had a fan blowing on me the whole time. This is happening. The race is just over 2 weeks away. Excitement, and nervousness sets in big time now. The training will continue but in small increments, no more long sessions, and most of all mental preparation. I'm ready.

Total on the day -

Miles - 5

VT Relay for Life

Relay for Life night! I got off work, went home and immediately packed up my things and hiked over to the drillfield. WOW, there was 5,200 people walking around a track that was 1/5 of a mile, it was packed!
After checking in and looking around a bit for my team I decided it was about time to get started. Being 7:30, at this point I only had 10.5 hours left.
The run started out a bit hectic I must say trying to weave in and out of walkers. It was hard not to get frustrated but I just had to remember that most people were not there to run so I would have to suck it up and just do my best until things settled down later on into the night. I kept a running log throughout the night so here is how things carried out for the next 10 hours . . .

Start ---------- 7:35 PM
50 Laps ------- 9:24 PM
110 Laps ------ 11:45 PM
Rest ---------- 11:45 - 12:15 (Met up with my team during this break, Woot!)
155 Laps -----1:49 AM
Rest ----------1:49 - 3:40 AM (I should have never brought a sleeping bag)
200 Laps ---- 5:32 AM

To emphasize a bit on the run. It was so great running with all those people and seeing so many people out for a great cause. All of you definitely helped me keep going to finish the run whether it be from the spontaneous "go Henry!" shouts, to generous water and food donations, to my new friend Zak that did a bunch of miles with me.

However all this encouragement started getting me thinking a bit about the upcoming race in the keys: there are 50 people in this race, not 5,000. There won't be a live band and the encouragement of seeing cancer survivors out there on the track with you. We will be running in a straight line on a road with cars flying by, not running around a track with cheery friends and people trying to sell lemonade and throwing footballs. There will be NO SMILING ALLOWED in the keys. Haha, ok so thats a bit extreme and I will most definitely be smiling, perhaps crying? throughout the race and definitely as I cross the finish line but it started to make me nervous about keeping that motivation throughout the race because you all made it so easy to keep going!

However; I won't be alone in the keys and if there are two people that I look up to, that know me thoroughly and know darn well how to get me excited and motivated, that would be Hannah and Mark. To an ultra runner, the support crew is your backbone. They keep you going, keep you hydrated, keep you fed, and most of all just seeing them at that next stop keeps you motivated. The support crew is just as much a part of the race as the runner, after all, both of their races end at the same time whether it be 16 hours or 32. So I wanted to say thanks to my sis and "bro" for all the time they are committing because I couldn't have a better team!

So those of you on my team should get a kick out of this picture. For those of you that don't know, I met my team about 3 days before Relay for Life while they were downtown late night selling Doritos and snacks to fundraise.
Well I didn't have a team and wanted to participate so they graciously took me under their wing and gave me this napkin because well, I was having a little trouble remembering the team name. Thanks yall!






Some shout outs from relay!
-Zak, the mining engineer, thanks for running with me, I'm impressed that your'e not a runner
yet pushed yourself to do 16 miles anyway
- Team Ateht Ahpla Ihp, even though we didn't get to hang out to much at the race thanks for
reaching out and letting me be on your team, oh, and when I came back to the mountain of
water bottles it was like a little oasis!
- Jess Quick,Caitlin, Jill, Bryon, and the competitive cheer girls, it was nice meeting those of you that I didn't know and I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 hour break with you all and the many conversations we had during it. Oh! and thanks for the food, not gonna lie the cookies are almost gone!
- Jessica Daniels, for every shout out!
- All the girls out there from Sigma Kappa, you guys always put a smile on my face :-)

For those wondering how I kept track of my laps, I worked out a little system that goes as follows. I carried a water bottle, so starting with my right hand after the first lap, I would move one finger to the side of my water bottle, after the second lap I would have two fingers on one side and three on the other. After 5 laps (one mile) all my fingers would be on the same side of the bottle and I would start on my left hand. After completing two miles my my left hand would be done and I would go back to the right and do the right hand water bottle one more time. After 3 miles or 15 laps I would make a mark with a pen on my wristband, as you can see from the picture below. If you count them, there are 13 marks. 13 x 15 = 195 and then I finished with 5 laps that aren't marked.

Lastly! Thank you so much to everyone who helped donate to my fundraising page! We just hit the goal of $1,000 yesterday and we still have 3 weeks to keep going!

Total on the day -

Miles - 40.0
Time - 10 hours
Friends - Awesome

Total on the Day -

Sauna - 47 minutes

Total on the Day -

Sauna - 48 minutes
Miles - 10
Time - 66 minutes

There are the good days and the not so good days of training. . .

Well, once again being Tuesday I decided to gorge myself at D2 once again.

2 servings of Hunan chicken with white rice
2 glasses of cherry coke
1 plate vegetarian macaroni and cheese and corn
1 plate of whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce
1 bowl chinese broth soup
1 bowl low fat granola cereal
1 plate of spinach leaves, tomatoes, cucumbers and broccoli
1 creme brulee
1 bowl of peaches
1 apple
0 motivation to sit in the sauna at the same time as trying to digest all this food

I learned that having a huge meal and going to sit in the sauna for 45 minutes, just is not going to work as part of my schedule. What an uncomfortable feeling, trying to digest and sit in a room that is 160 degrees Fahrenheit. If every day of training was a good one though, it wouldn't be training. So after 20 minutes in the sauna I couldn't bare it any longer and went home and layed down. No run today, I needed a break. However, learning from your mistakes is what training is all about so from now on I will try to make breakfast my big meal OR run in the morning and then make dinner my big meal.

Total on the day

Sauna - 20 minutes