Final Push to Finger Lakes

Psyche has successfully rebounded with a good ten mile run Sunday.  Went much better than expected after the not-so-good 24-mile effort the day earlier.  Today’s quick four miler went well, but then it always does, so fingers crossed that I turn in a good twelve mile run tomorrow when I hit the road at (yikes) 5:30AM.

I need to respect the training is quite demanding and not to pressure myself to manage a swell fund raising drive at the same time.  I’m already tense about surviving this fifty mile event in four weeks, but the good news is that there are only two weeks of intense running before the schedule winds down to rest the legs before the race.  Of course I still have two more marathons to run the next two Saturdays, but the new plan is to focus everything on these runs and not worry about the other aspects.

Should I get through that trial, there will be a week or two of recovery where I can apply myself to ways of driving contributions.  Even better, I get to start investing time in planning the trip to Reunion and I am already salivating over the chance to climb up to the rim of an active volcano.  So good times are ahead, I just need to pace myself even when I’m not running...

Down to Three Again

A disappointing twenty-four mile run this morning, but once again there should only be three of these tense scenarios facing me in the near future (a pair of marathons the next two Saturdays and then the fifty miler July 2^nd).  I got off to a good start around 6:30AM and despite an unsettled forecast the skies were clear and temps nice and cool.  Even better, I managed to not come storming out of the gate and stick to a slower pace for the first several miles, so one would suspect a clockwork run.

But to be honest my runs haven’t been good this week.  Already noted how I felt bushed during the twelve mile trot earlier this week, and a somewhat similar fate befell the eight miler the day after.  I needed to stop at Staples and plotted my route to swing past their local store at mile six so I could dash inside for a quick purchase.  Everything went as planned, but when I tried to re-start for the last two miles I was saddled with ennui and had a terrible time getting the pace back up.  Although I eventually regained my stride, it wasn’t until there was only a mile remaining.

Two possible causes.  First might be increasing humidity as summer becomes more evident.  I’ve definitely been sweating profusely the last few runs and perhaps I need to pay more attention to proper hydration.  A secondary pitfall might be a lack of motivation.  Haven’t received any donations for several weeks and as much time as I devote to keeping this blog current it is disappointing to have zero feedback.

Right before the marathon I received several nice donations and it truly touched me.  Were it not for gratitude I may have tossed in the towel then, given the broken wrist.  My hope is to inspire fellow diabetics while raising funds for research and I recognized it would require a lot of work, but I didn’t count on the absurd time investment the training would necessitate.  Not only is the ‘free-time clock’ virtually bankrupted by being out on the road so much, I am frankly quite exhausted by the regimen and it takes an effort just to sit here and type out these updates, let alone dream up ways to publicize the effort and then implement.  The absence of any response around the effort doesn’t help.

So I’ll try to not psyche myself out, but I stopped at mile eighteen today and walked for a half mile.  The conscious thought was “I’m pooped and what does it matter?”  Fate sent out a life preserver though.  As I was walking (at a brisk pace), I was passed on the opposite side of the road by the first other runner I had ever witnessed on Dow Road (the road I take that goes behind Kure Beach).  There are a ton of bicyclists out here but no other runners.  Anyway, she ran ahead of me and then stopped for a minute with her head down and breathing hard – I gestured to ask if she was okay, but she had headphones on and didn’t acknowledge me so I continued walking.  Anyway, this back-and-forth persisted for another quarter mile and as I started to feel rejuvenated I was pulling ahead of the runner.  It occurred to me that I had already run an absurd distance and was walking faster than a fellow human being was atempting to run…so I picked the trot back up and endured another four miles at an okay pace before punting again.

Regardless, a sad entry in the running log and I will do my best to turn in a solid ten mile run tomorrow.  Hopefully that conclusion to another 60-mile week will prevent things from falling apart.  For a while today I was honestly considering whether it was worth the pain and suffering…

Mourning Runs?

Got out of the blocks early with the latest twelve mile run and hit the road around 5:40AM.  Wednesday is the longest weekday run (twelve miles every week now) and it makes sense to get this done before temps get steamy.  During the school year, however, my daughter gets up for breakfast around 6AM and heads out to catch her bus around 7:40AM, so mornings are devoted to parenthood…at least until summer vacation.

Last Friday concluded Spencer’s school year so the decks were cleared and the early lift-off was realized.  Things started off well as the roads were deserted and it seemed pleasantly cool, though it was terribly humid and I was drenched in sweat a lot quicker than usual.

Whether it was weather or simply too strong a pace, around mile seven I was fairly whipped.  This hasn’t happened too often and the last thing I need is to bury myself this early.  I figured it was a good test for dealing with the fatigue I’m sure waits in the fifty mile venture, however, so I tried to prevent my pace from slipping into oblivion.  I stuck it out, but it was enervating and unusually distasteful.

Digesting feedback provided by the Garmin Sports Watch yielded good and bad news.  The disappointing aspect was that I was hardly setting a blistering pace early on, so I remain mystified why I felt so tired so early.  On the positive front, I completed 12.5 miles at a much better pace (9:35 minutes per mile) than I suspected from what it felt like.  Clearly not a pace for the record books, but acceptable given the physical state.

Guess we’ll try this again next Wednesday morning and see if performance improves so I won’t have to mourn morning starts.  Was honestly hoping I could begin considering 12-mile runs as “shorter jaunts” like the 10-milers are becoming.  Definitely want to expand my endurance because that dang Finger Lakes Fifty seems closer every minute!

Sock it to Me

Concluded the easy week with about nine miles Sunday morning.  I started relatively late and ran in warmer weather than I’ve been accustomed to…but certainly the type of heat I will need to gain more exposure to.  Sweated things out at a 9:10 pace and wound up toe painting an ‘embryo’, which I will add to the gallery of lame art.  And on Saturday I managed to draw a dirty sock...

“Embryo” --- Toe Painting, by Vance

So I’m not terribly impressed with my new art form, but you have to admit it employs the world’s largest canvas.  I will continue to see if I can germinate anything appealing here, primarily because it provides fuel for thought during these runs.  I recently griped about not having enough time to devote to all this running, and time is a double-edged sword that cuts both ways…unfortunately you cut yourself both ways.

Beyond usurping leisure time, there is the further conundrum of what you devote your brain to during all that time pounding the pavement.  In fact, one of the caveats I’ve learned about long distance running is that a significant part of the challenge is in your head à many can’t handle long stretches purely due to the mental humdrum.  This hasn’t been an issue for me, and I feel confident it won’t be.

In fact, this might prove to be one of the select few competitive advantages I bring to the table.  I’ve always enjoyed having time to ponder, and since I am usually in the middle of a book or dwelling over a project at the office, training runs have proven to be a pleasant period of contemplation.  Since Chip and Simoni got me the iPod strap, it has been time to savor music and more recently, to take French lessons.  Can’t recall a time when I was plagued with boredom during a long run…at least yet, fifty miles might be different.

“Dirty Sock” --- Toe Painting, by Vance

The rest week is over and it will be another three weeks of 60+ miles.  That’s a bunch more canvas and time to mull over putting it to artistic advantage…   J

Playing Fair for Plane Fare

With my cakewalk run of ten miles yesterday morning, there was plenty of time to book flights for Reunion.  I’ve done a lot of intense scouring of travel websites to cobble a plan together and thought I had my ducks in a row.  Despite total failure to recruit a running companion, I have tempted a few friends to c’mon over to Reunion while I’m there, including my brother-in-law (hiking companion for the Kalalau Trail posted earlier).

Spoke with Jeff Friday night to discuss coordination of travel plans and pledged to try and purchase my tickets so he had something to work around.  Ultra-marathons aside, Reunion still requires a significant commitment in time and money, and he is on the bubble for being able to join the expedition.  Like me, Jeff would be forfeiting a large chunk of vacation time with family, but he is an avid hiker and the volcanic trails of Reunion carry considerable allure.

Scoring tickets proved arduous.  Preliminary plan was to fly USAir to Paris and then Air Austral to Reunion, for several reasons.  Foremost was that I fly USAir most often and have collected a few frequent flier miles over time.  When I plugged the round trip into their web site it appeared I only had enough miles to gain a free ride one way, but the return flight could be purchased for $600.  USAir drops you off at Charles De Gaulle in Paris, which led to selecting Air Austral for the second half.  The only other serious contender was Air France, who only departs from Orly (another Paris airport, which has direct transportation with De Gaulle, but that’s clearly another wrinkle and Air Austral was a few dollars cheaper).

Since the biggest investment would be with Air Austral, I decided to buy that round trip first, which was accomplished with no problems except for one.  My wife’s passport and mine were both about to expire and Kim recently scored a great opportunity to go to Italy this summer.  So we headed to the local post office several weeks ago and applied for renewals.  Kim indicated travel dates on her application but I didn’t bother as Reunion was months away and they told us typical turnaround was six to eight weeks.

Kim received her new document last week but nada for yours truly.  I maintain the lag was driven by her indication of some urgency…Kim says it’s due to all of the Arabic stamps on my old passport.  Whatever the cause for delay, I was prompted for a passport number when purchasing my Air Austral tickets and had none since I had to surrender it to get the renewal.  Fortunately I keep a photocopy of my passport in my wallet in case it gets lost when traveling, so I still knew the number, but that begged the question of whether a new one gets assigned at renewal.  We compared Kim's old and new passports to learn that you do get a brand new number.  I didn’t want to delay purchasing plane fare and Kim suggested I proceed with the old number, pointing out I could just bring both passports along to verify the discrepancy.

One ticket down, one to go, but things fell apart on the USAir side when I approached the round trip as a pair of one-way ventures (so I could purchase one with miles and the other with cash).  I thought the notion of round trip pricing had gone to the wayside several years ago, but criminy!  Round trip air fare between my home and Paris was $1,155, but buying the segments on a one-way basis totaled $5,500!!!  Worse yet, whenever I tried entering the frequent flier acquisition as a one-way it bounced away from mileage redemption to cash.  A call to USAir confirmed the bad news:  you can only purchase round trips with frequent flier miles, and yes, there is a sizable discount for round trip purchases.  Sizable?  Believe I would label the quantum leap from $1,155 to $5,500 gargantuan rather than sizable.

Back at the drawing board, the begrudging solution was to purchase additional frequent flier miles and redeem for the entire round trip.  Of course the insult to injury was getting hit with another $150 in “taxes” for my “free” ticket!  Not a pleasant experience and a painful learning curve, but Reunion here I come.

Rest Stop

I stand corrected over earlier cynical statements around “rest” weeks in the new program.  Getting through the week without a twenty-some mile slog waiting for me Saturday morning is quite refreshing!  Even better, I hadn’t picked up that the usual eight miles on Thursday got trimmed to six…the wonder of minor miracles.

Yeah, I still have to get forty miles in, but coming down from sixty it truly is a marked reduction.  The official schedule only mandated 38 miles this week, but I’m sticking to the slight extension and have plodded 22.3 miles thus far versus 20 scheduled, so I should nudge over forty by simply nailing the remaining pair of runs.

Speaking of which, time to head out for my ten miles now!

Running in Circles

So I never shared results of the Ohio attempt at “toe painting”.  If you recall, I attempted to trace out a bunch of circles along my short run last week.  May have sounded interesting, but I was rather disappointed with the result:

Disappointing toe painting of “circles”…

Not very appealing, but thanks to modern technology I spun the image around and viewed from a different perspective, my route crystallizes into something.  Except for that funky contraption jutting out of his belly-button, the tilted image strikes me as a rendering of the Marlboro Man leaning up against a fence post and smoking…albeit his cancer stick looks big enough to be a cigar rather than a cigarette.

Perhaps I’ll consider the contraption emerging from his abdomen an IV system since he’s obviously got a serious case of lung cancer…

“Marlboro Man with IV for his Cancer”

On the other hand, perhaps I need to work a bit more on this whole toe painting concept…

On Reaching Fifty…

If the subtitle for this entry has you expecting deep philosophy around aging and mid-life crises, perish the thought.  My pondering on reaching fifty is predicated solely on miles, not years.  I’ve consistently expressed disbelief that my training programs would prove sufficient in preparing for the next hurdle…but the proof is in the pudding and I’ve been pleased with results for both the half and full marathons.

But this fifty miler seems radically more difficult and the training requirements way more deficient.  Even though I will be wrapping things up by running a marathon for three consecutive Saturdays and another ten miles the next day, that is such a far cry from fifty miles at a single shot.  Add to the mix the abbreviated schedule (the actual program was twenty weeks but I only had fifteen) and doubt creeps in.

To be fair, the program I selected clearly stated that this was a “minimum requirement” to last fifty miles.  Since I’m not worried about time, perhaps this is okay, although the race only affords twelve hours to complete.  That translates to a 14:24 pace per mile to avoid disqualification, but let’s apply a bit of chainsaw math.

I should be able to comfortably knock off the first half in 4-1/2 hours, which is the only part of the equation I can estimate with any confidence – everything after that will be a brave new world since 26 miles is the longest training run.  Achieving that pace tacks over a minute to my marathon results and I’m exceeding that for my plus-twenty milers now.  The fly in the ointment, however, is that I’m pretty tired after polishing off those runs, calling into question prospects for the back half.

Still, that front pace buys me time and I could still slog out the next 25 miles at an 18 minute pace to beat the (12-hour) clock.  When prevented from running after the wrist surgery I took some ‘walks’, and a brisk walking pace timed out at 15:30 per mile.  So on paper it’s doable…but I suspect the road might prove somewhat more challenging.  We’ll keep training and assess prospects in a few weeks, but for now the goal will simply be to stagger across the finish line within twelve hours.

Time of the Season

Immediately on the heels of breeching a fifty mile week, the sixty mile plateau has been shattered. Well, shattered might be a bit strong since total miles logged was 61.2.  Let’s just say I “achieved” a new plateau…   J

It was satisfying because my routine had only 56 miles scheduled.  Didn’t seriously overdo it, but remain seriously concerned over building the necessary base for the rapidly approaching fifty mile test.  I can tell you that once I’ve tackled the challenges I’ve set, my career as an ultra-marathoner will be short-lived à largely due to the time requirements.  Thank heavens I am blessed with a forbearing wife and daughter…scrambled this weekend to catch up with everything omitted from being on the road all week and when you devote four hours to running Saturday and another two on Sunday it really compromises family time.  L

Of course you have to add all the time for maintenance surrounding the long legs - before taking off there’s baby powder to apply to the feet and Vaseline to inner thighs and nipples.  There’s filling and washing water bottles (and keeping stocked up with G2 for one of the water bottles), maintaining the hydro-pack (dis-assembling, washing and re-assembling that is a half hour venture), making sure I’ve got enough Clif Bars and Hammer gels to consume, etc., etc.  A new time investment is refreshing music playlists for my iPod --- earlier on I simply hit ‘shuffle’ and was off, but now I’ve begun mixing in an audio French lesson after every seven songs, so I have to create a new custom list for each long run (since I was never able to find time to listen to these otherwise, I am quite pleased that I’ve discovered a way to begin learning some French, however!)

And let’s not forget that being diabetic, I need to ensure I’m wearing my ID bracelet, my cell phone is charged and other concerns.  So at the moment this regimen requires 12 – 15 hours each week, and that’s a LOT of time.  I do enjoy running, but can’t say I lust to get out on the road…it will be interesting to see where the running schedule falls back to after Reunion.

Notes from the Road

In Dayton this week and making a real quick entry on the "shared" PC at the hotel I am at (hate to hog things, so I'll rush this...).

Completed a pair of runs with some bonus mileage thus far --> ran six miles yesterday (four scheduled) and eleven today (ten scheduled)...in my desparate attempt to prepare for the Finger lakes Fifty.  Yesterday's run was especially fun as I headed out from the hotel after work and attempted to run a bunch of circles and render an interesting "toe painting"...but since I can't download the runs from my Sports Watch I'll have to wait until I get back home to witness the graphic.

With today's run I have officially plodded a thousand miles since my training began last summer!  But what is really surprising is that in a mere six weeks of training I have already equalled the total mileage covered during the sixteen weeks I prepared for the half marathon.  I kid you not --- this fifty mile stuff is serious...

Tomorrow there are eight miles on the docket before an off day on Friday.  Then Saturday will be 24 miles but after that is my "rest week", lol --- only 38 miles the entire week!!!

Hydrated

Recognizing the pitfall with last Saturday’s long run was inadequate water supply, I endeavored to work the kinks out of the hydro-pack before this week’s mini-marathon.  I figured the test run should be a short session in the event of unforeseen difficulties, so the hydro pack made its debut during a four mile jaunt last Tuesday.

The hydro-pack functioned effectively and is WAY more convenient for drinking while on the move.  The suction straw hangs harmlessly (and not in the way) and can be quickly fetched --- much easier than plucking a water bottle from the belt and prying the nozzle open with my teeth…not to mention having to repeat this operation in reverse afterwards. 

The only drawback is the lack of a chest strap to keep the shoulder straps centered, so they kept slipping off my shoulders.  Despite identifying this deficit during the test cruise, I failed to implement any correction and was confronted with the dilemma again at the beginning Saturday’s twenty-two miler.  I was off and running at 6:30AM and it was cool and foggy, quite delightful running weather, and after several failures I wound up just tying the straps to each other across my chest and voila (notice the French???  J) à the issue was successfully resolved and everything was flawless thereafter.

It was a very good run.  Even though I am not focused on time, I paced twenty seconds faster than the previous week…an improvement I attribute totally to better hydration.  Managed the quicker pace despite a few obstacles --- seemed like every neighborhood was holding a community yard sale this Saturday morning and I encountered traffic galore the first five miles…despite the early lift-off.  Fortunately the course eludes neighborhoods after a bit and traffic had effectively dissipated when I returned on the rebound back home later that morning.

The pathway was consistent with last week, though this time I stretched things slightly to circle the stone posts marking the entrance to Fort Fisher, the last village at the southern end of Pleasure Island.  Total mileage was 22.9 with the extra push to the fort, and I might try to make it to the very end of the island next trip!

Downside for the accelerated pace was this morning’s ten miler.  Last week I felt great and knocked off the run without ado, but after pushing it yesterday the muscles were stiff and I had to work hard to conquer the circuit.  At least I had a massage scheduled for this afternoon, so the legs feel much more relaxed and tomorrow is a rest day...

Next Steps

So I’m well into the new regimen that will hopefully get me prepared for the fifty miler in July.  Each successive target in this journey generates serious qualms.  I’ve acquired a comfort level as each barrier gets conquered, but this one seems overwhelming.  I was definitely tired after plodding twenty-two miles last Saturday and of course that wasn’t even half way.

Not only is the distance tremendous, but unlike the previous two runs, I had to trim several weeks off of the training program.  Although I was initially thinking it wouldn’t be so bad since I had just completed the marathon training, this routine has miles galore in it and I fear not building a proper base.

On the plus side is how good I felt running ten miles immediately after the twenty-two.  Strangely, even a ten mile route is becoming just a ‘jaunt’, lol, and that’s a definite positive.  I’ve been extending my runs beyond the training requirement (well, all except for the twenty + milers) by roughly 10% in an attempt to get a little extra leg work in without dipping into the realm of overtraining.

Part of the comfort level I am acquiring for the longer runs involves enhanced maintenance on the food and water front.  Before I wouldn’t bother packing along a water bottle unless going out for at least ten miles and would only eat after it was fairly evident  my blood sugar was low.  Now I always run with my water belt stocked and start sipping by mile two.  Around mile five into any run I will enjoy a Hammer Gel and a half hour later consume a Clif Bar.  After this the maintenance gets back to play-by-ear, but by this point (typically over ten miles into the run) the tension has evaporated and it’s all business in conquering the current distance.

Caught Red Handed!

I’ve continued physical therapy to rehabilitate my wrist over the past two months with good results.  But still, it is dawning on me that it will never recover 100%...

As depressing as that sentiment might be, the good news is that there is no impact of the injury upon my running program…or so I thought.  The other day I sat down to start the exercises I need to perform every few hours to keep the healing wrist limber when I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.  My entire thumb was a ghastly shade of red, in stark contrast to the creamy white of the rest of my hand.  Had the injury cut off circulation to my thumb?

Then I scanned my fingers to acknowledge they were a ruddier complexion too!  What the heck, call the doctor?!?!?!?!?

Fortunately it only took a moment to connect the dots and decipher what had caused the funky shadings on my hand.  I still wear a wrist brace when I go out running and I’ve been pounding the pavement outdoors so much that I’ve developed a “farmer’s tan” on my hand!  The brace conceals my palm (and roughly the same area on the back side of my hand), sheltering everything except digits from sunlight.  An amusing solution to the mystery of being caught red handed…

Farmer’s Tan Hand - note the curiously red thumb and fingers…

Bonjour to the Big Race

Well I am officially registered for the run on Reunion…but not for the big race.  They limit Le Grand Raid to 2,600 runners and 1,300 of those slots are reserved for islanders.  Still, I figured I would have more than two weeks after they opened registration up to get signed up.

The first step was alerting Rudolph in the Netherlands so he and his wife Jacomien could do a dry run with the registration and provide critical translations, as it is entirely in French.  My Dutch friends came through wonderfully, saving screen shots of important pages and footnoting instructions.  So when I plunged into signing up it went fairly expediently…except for the part where I learned Le Grand Raid was completely booked!  But there were openings for the “half” version – the Bourbon Trail, so I snagged that.

Am I disappointed?  Honestly not at all, because here are the basics for the Bourbon Trail.  Total distance is 58 miles with an elevation gain of over 16,000 feet (i.e., three miles!).  I know Le Grand Raid runs past the active volcano and goes through a pair of villages which are accessible solely by foot or helicopter, so you know this crazy distance and elevation gain will be along hazardous trails.  Training for the fifty mile run in July has me appreciating just how intense this ordeal is and discretion became the better part of valor…particularly because it appears I will be tackling the venture solo.

There shouldn’t be a lick of remorse to wind up celebrating the landmark birthday by running a marathon, a 50-mile ultra-marathon and the Bourbon Trail ultra-marathon on Reunion this year.  Having learned a bit more about the world of long distance running it strikes me that Le Grand Raid requires a bit more experience than I would bring to the table.  However, I did take heart to learn that my age qualifies me for the “Veterans 2” class in the race, so I guess I’m not a rookie after all --- here is an excerpt from the e-mail:

Bonjour Vance

Félicitations, vous êtes désormais inscrit(e) à la course TRAIL DE BOURBON dans la catégorie VETERANS 2 HOMMES

Hommes, as Rudolph pointed out in his liner notes, is French for ‘men’.  The race is on!

Fifty at Fifty

Yesterday was another ten miles, right on the heels of Saturday’s 22-miler to yield my first week of logging fifty miles.  I’ve come quite a ways on this crazy trip and it was cool to think I was reaching these new heights.  Surprisingly, the ten miler came off very well --- feared I would be stiff from the long haul on Saturday but I guess the difference is running at a relaxed pace (could barely walk down steps for two days after the marathon!).

Of course this deal has involved constantly pushing outward and my exultation at completing fifty miles in one week is tempered by the realization that in just two months I need to span that distance in a single day (actually, half a day).  Well, thus far I have managed to achieve goals I could have easily dismissed as impossible by approaching their conquest a step at a time, so I’ll keep the faith.  But once again, the goal seems terribly distant at this early stage…

The rewarding thing about yesterday’s run was finally making it all the way to Kure Beach (the town just below Carolina Beach), which I had originally targeted for the twenty mile training run in preparation for the marathon.  The bad news is that it was a warm day and I packed along insufficient water supplies.  I was going to take the hydro-pack my stepson got me for Christmas on its initial test run, but it didn’t come with instructions and started sucking up time to get ready --- unfortunately I still get tense before these long runs (due to concerns over diabetes) and decided to punt because I wanted to get out before temperatures started soaring.  A bit foolish, but no serious repercussions.

The shortfall in hydration actually provided a couple good experiences.  I had drained both water bottles in my belt by mile eighteen and found it difficult to swallow the Clif Bar I was eating on the run to keep my blood sugar on track.  So for the first time ever during a training run I stopped.  Wow.

Pulled off at a convenience store at mile twenty to buy a bottle of water, finally breaking the twenty dollar bill I had tucked in my belt five months ago!  This was positive because I knew I needed to do this and convince myself it isn’t a tragedy to pause à suspect I will be doing that several times during the fifty miler, lol.

If you read my earlier posting about “Toe Painting”, the other benefit was understanding my Sports Watch a bit better.  I’ve been thinking about how to draw pictures by running and thought I could leave spaces by pausing my watch, but stand corrected.  When I got back and downloaded the run I noticed that even though I re-started my watch a bit further down the road (intentionally to see how it would appear), it connected the points with a straight line.  So darn, toe painting will be limited to a solid line, but it is better knowing that up front.

Beyond feeling really good throughout today’s run, another fun aspect was feeling like ten miles wasn’t a ‘long run’ any more.  Sheesh, I’ve come a long way, baby…

Better yet is growing confidence in effectively managing blood sugar levels during these runs.  I’ve been doing a good job, but today was more relaxed and almost second nature.  Let’s hope I can carry that feeling over to the twenty milers now.

And lest I forget, managing my diabetes will be impacted by the additional miles I’m plodding now.  Fortunately today was the first of the month, so I attempted to embed the need to ensure I accommodate nighttime concerns with the latest “Take Care of Yourself First” notecard:

The May edition of my monthly “Take Care of Yourself First” card – trying to be proactive about avoiding blood sugar dropping overnight!

My bedtime snacks are a bit more caloric than when I was a youngster (i.e., less than 50!), but you can bet I will edge them up again until I’m assured these long runs don’t send things into a tailspin overnight.  The training schedule increases to an average of 48 miles per week (from 28 miles per week for the marathon), so forewarned is forearmed.

Getting Off Track

Suppose one good thing about getting a colonoscopy is that I needed a few hours of rest after the procedure to get my brain back…which afforded a rare spot of time to finally start paying attention to facets of this adventure beyond running.

There is much to do.  Beyond learning French and pinning down someone to tag along (if not to run with me, just to be around and share the exploration of a new world), simply deciphering plane flights is a challenge.  Getting to Reunion is a long haul and with so few carriers servicing this remote destination, there aren’t many options at first glance.

Started off using my travel “search engine” of choice, kayak.com, which suggested Air France as the sole carrier servicing Reunion…and at some pretty steep fares.  I was already expecting to pay dearly to get over to Reunion, but because I was trying to recruit Paul (who naturally voiced cost as a concern with the upcoming wedding), sent Air France an e-mail seeking assistance towards the fund raising drive.

I honestly shouldn’t harbor any ill will towards Air France, for who knows how many crazy requests they receive to score discounted fares, but was disappointed with a lame response to my inquiry and this unjustified displeasure led to a deeper search, ultimately  revealing an actual Reunion-based carrier, Air Austral.

Better yet, Air Austral’s flights depart for Reunion from Charles De Gaulle airport in France, where most of the US carriers land.  I had been further discomforted by Air France because their Reunion departures disembark from Orly, an alternative Paris airport (they do offer bus service transfers from Charles De Gaulle, but this still presents another wrinkle if you are attempting the long trek).

So what’s the coolest part of researching flights to Reunion for my ultra-marathon?  Well, guess what the three-letter abbreviation is for the airport located in St. Denis, Reunion?  RUN, of course!  Yet another wonderful coincidence to help me embrace the adventure.

Now the plan of attack is to coordinate a flight to Paris on USAir, using frequent flyer miles to the extent possible, and then Air Austral the rest of the way.  This is not an easy itinerary and it looks like I will need to invest a day-and-a-half for travel time in either direction to the island…so I will definitely need two weeks of vacation time to make the effort worthwhile and afford time to prepare + recover from the run.  Next steps are to identify dates which make the most sense, ensure I may take the time off from work, and then start talking with USAir and Air Austral to get some tickets!