So what happened this year? I don't actually remember the date, as I said - I should have started this a long time ago, but we were sitting at home having dinner. Jeremy finished his dinner and said, "I feel like having a chocolate". With that said, he got up and got a Hershey's chocolate bar from the fridge and asked Jessie and Elizabeth if they want a piece. I said to him, "Chocolate?!? What did you do today to earn it???". I was just joking around but he started responding with all the activities he did that day and I stopped him right away admitting that I was just joking around. I then told him that there is a race at Hershey's park and that he should go do that. He didn't exactly believe me so I told him to look it up. He went to his laptop and don't you know I wasn't joking around. To make it even better or perhaps "sweeter" is a better word, instead of just water/gatorade stations, at mile 11.5 they instead have a "sweet station" where they handout chocolate.
To say that his whole face lit up would be a gross understatement. He then said "I want to do it!" to which my face lit up. I asked him if he was joking around and he told me he wasn't. Hm... He would be old enough...And apparently for every racer, you get 2 free tickets to Hershey Park. Hm... Looked at cost and the race cost was equal to 2 park tickets plus $ 7.00. That means for an extra $ 7.00, we could go to Hershey Park...Hm...
Still, I left that for the time being. I did email them and found out the 2014 date and approximatly when registration would start.
I did approach him again after a week or so asking him if he is serious. I do not want to force him into this or try to convince him to do it. Gotta be his decision but if he was serious, then I wanted to make this happen.
He still said yes!
I figured he doesn't need to seriously train during the year since he does do a variety of sports but assumed he would train in the summer.
Bad assumption. School finished and I still hoped he would train. Then he and his sister went to their grandparents with their cousin, who is a year younger than Jeremy and a runner. I was hoping he would train there. Nope.
Started getting close to the date. Yes - I know the date is in October but he was starting from scratch. I again asked him if he is serious and when he said he is, I told him that I won't sign him up unless he really starts. We decided on the following schedule:
| Monday | Rest day from running |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | Run short |
| Wednesday | Run Medium |
| Thursday | Run short |
| Friday | Rest day from running |
| Saturday | Rest day from running but he still does his other sports |
| Sunday | Long run with me |
First long run Sunday came and I wanted to do 3 miles. It's a flatish loop around the house. No major streets to cross. Tiny little elevation at end. Things didn't go well. We stopped around 2 miles. I'm not even sure we covered 2 miles. At this point in the game, I really wanted to get him going with distance. I figured 3 miles today and then (not so) slowly get him up to 8+. This was a major set back. I tried to keep him upbeat about it. The next Sunday we got 3 miles but it still wasn't "pretty". We did realize from the beginning that his 13.1 mile journey would be a run/walk thing, but didn't expect him to walk so early on.
This was a major problem. You see there is a 3 hour time limit here which means he MUST keep a 14 minute per mile pace. If you don't, the SAG wagon will pick you up. Later, I read that they won't DNF you and pick you up but rather you will be given the option to DNF and get a ride back or to continue except that you must get off the road (stay on sidewalks) and that aid stations will close down. I did the Disneyland Half-Marathon (Tinkerbell) and I remember after I finished, I walked to the car. As I was walking, I passed mile 7 or 8 and there was a woman still running with the SAG wagon right behind her. If she would have stopped, they would have crashed right into her. I, of course, applauded her and offered her words of encourgement but it was a horrible sight to see. I didn't want that for him.
During the week, he made progress on the short/medium runs. Tuesday/Thursday weren't more than 1.5 miles. Wednesday sometimes upto 3 miles but some of them were walks. We used our block which is a little short of 1/2 mile. He just did loops varying which direction. This was so he wasn't getting totally bored and also because on the other side of the block was the only hill in my 3 miler. Depending on which direction you travelled it was either shorter and steeper or longer and not so steep. Mind you, it was not steep at all. Rather it was a little bit of an elevation.
On Sunday's we sometimes instead ran to my in-laws former house in Floral Park. Once he seemed comfortable with 4 miles (walks included), I decided he is ready to hate Alley Pond. Those are the hills.
My weekends became the following model: Saturday - I would run 7-9 miles with whomever. Sundy - I would run with my crew anywhere from 11-14 and then run with him initially 5 and eventually going to 7. I was putting in lots of mileage but it was worth it.
I took him on the original 5 Mile Challenge. Lots of hills on that one. The next time, I took him on the same 5 miler but duplicated the loop that leaves the park in the other direction adding another mile. He was handling it. He was dead when we would get home but he got the job done. I also ran with him once from home to Alley Pond to do an abbreviated section and then run home. He was suffering. He had bad days. He also had slightly less bad days. Then things hit the fan.
That weekend, I had run 7 the day before with Heidi and Hammad. The next day, Heidi showed up again (Kudos to her) and ran 11 with us. Then Elizabeth brought the boy to AP to me and we set of for the 7 miler. It was the weekend before my Back 2 Back Marathons (CT/PA) and I thought I was taking it easy until I realized I'm doing 7 and 18. Whatever. He and I started and he wasn't doing that well from the start.
Let me take a quick break here and just talk about his running style. Our strategy for him was Run/Walk. That means you run when you are supposed to and walk when you need to. Simple right? The thing is is that walking is fine as long as you do it with purpose. I wanted him to fast walk. Make every minute walking count. Constantly toward the finish at a fast pace. That was my wish. His style was different. He preferred to run fastish and walk very slow. I called his walking "zombie walking". His style killed me. I had already run and suddenly he would do very fast sections that I couldn't/wouldn't respond to and drop me or he would walk very slow and labored. There was nothing in between. We decided that when he runs, he would drop me and when he walks I would catch up to him and continue. We would constantly leapfrog each other. Only difference between him and me was that I was always at an even pace. His was either fast or slow.
OK - Now that that was explained, let's go back to the 7 miler. We started and the first thing you encounter is a nasty nasty hill. It sucks. We always say it "warms you up". Yeah... Sure.
He was suffering from the very beginning and I was getting annoyed. I wasn't getting annoyed that he was suffering. I was getting annoyed at the zombie running and I told him that. I told him that he might not make the cutoff and I don't understand what he is doing. I told him that I don't want him to hate running or me for this but I just didn't understand why he told me to sign him up for this at all. He looked like he was angry or annoyed at me and then ran off. I caught him and he said that he wants to tell me something. Oh oh...
I really dreaded this. I really did. Perhaps I spoke too harshly or said too much. I shouldn't have worried. I am so damn proud of what he said to me. It was very mature and was very well spoken.
He told me that he doesn't hate running, he just dislikes it. He hasn't (yet) gotten the runner's high. He doesn't hate me and won't hate me. I asked him then why did he sign up and he told me that it was an achievement. An accomplishment he wanted for himself. That he wanted to do it and to do it well (according to his ability). He told me appreciates me being here with him. Oh my God... Who is this eloquent kid?!?
Things got easier for me right there. My job was to encourage and I think I did it well. I certainly took it very seriously. We never got to go further than that. Hershey's was at the end of 4 weekends of 5 races and school had started curtailing his running in the evenings. Still, in soccer (at school), they were running every so often. Lucky for him, the training helped him here and he was able to do a 8 min mile without that much trouble. No he wouldn't be able to continue at that pace but sure felt good...
If I raced on the weekend, then he didn't go run long. One of the races was the Merrel Down and Dirty trail race. I did the 10K and then bandited the 5K to accompany him. It was good that he had to race a 5K and with obstacles and mud, it just made things more interesting.
Slowly but surely race day approached. Jeff suddenly wanted to do this too but it was already sold out. It would have been nice to have company.
Race day was coming and I still didn't book a place. Elizabeth wanted to take LC with us. I thought it was a bad idea. Using Bringfido.com we booked the econolodge, a place that let you take medium size dogs. I lost that discussion.
Throught out all this of course, Elizabeth was still struggling with the Board of Education and their silliness. Jessie had just started middle school and Jeremy started his Junior year. I had a lot of races and overall things were all over the place.
Jeremy was getting nervous. We hit Chocolate World and saw a tour on how they made Chocolate. I remembered the ride from when I was a kid. We even went to a Chocolate Tasting Class which awarded us honorary diplomas. As we were waiting to be let in, we were first in line, I told the kids "that the reason we are first in line is because we were VIH's". Of course they didn't get it and I explained that we were "Very Important Hershey's!!!". Jeremy simply looked away in disgust. Jessie performed a beautiful eye roll. Hey...It's my job to annoy them and I take my job quite seriously...Hahaha.
Class was fun and we got free chocolate. We then went into the park (for free) for a little bit. It was cold and late. Hershey's after dark was happening which means they would be open until midnight but we didn't stay that long. Truthfully, if we didn't have LC there or if we would have gotten there earlier, it would have been better but we did do somethings, saw a show and the kids and I hit the bumper cars and had fun. I was happy happy demolishing a bag of Kettle Corn.
We eventually left. I had my pre-race food and ate it in the car. For Elizabeth and the kids, we got burgers and while they ate them, I walked a very very happy dog who was glad to see us.
The room was a decent size room with 2 queen size beds. Most of the room were the beds. The bathroom was tiny. Since roads would be closing at 7am, I wanted to leave the hotel at 6 knowing that 6:15 is more realistic. We were only 2-3 miles from Hershey's but I was worried about traffic, road closures and parking. The kids and Lee would be woken up at 5am. I was going to wake up at 3am and eat my breakfast and read on the floor in the bathroom. Wonderful. It is what it is.
We turned out the lights at 10pm. Jessie and Elizabeth slept in 1 bed and Jeremy and I in the other. This made sense because the girls usually wanted more blankets and were cold while Jeremy and I were usually hot. We also slept nearer to the AC. LC had his bed between the wall and Elizabeth's side. Jeremy initially couldn't get comfortable but finally settled down. LC was snoring almost immediatly.
I went to the bathroom to have a picnic. Wonderful. The floor was cold and my behind froze so every so often I turned the heating lamp on.
5am also came way too fast. The plan was for Elizabeth to walk LC as usual but I decided to do it. Doing this would help digestion but also gave her more time to get ready. The result was that everyone was (actually!) ready by 6am except me. Also, while they got ready, I decided to start loading the car up. I didn't want a repeat chafing situation like in Steamtown so I decided to have Elizabeth make sure the spray vaseline got everywhere it needed to be but I left it in the car.
I started taking things down with the intent to bring it up but of course forgot it. Another trip and now I have it. I got ready and we left around 6:20.
It was cold. I was wearing compression sleeves, compression shorts and shorts and on top had sleevies, long sleeve shirt, my MM singlet and of course (light) gloves. I also brought a very large see through recycling bag. As soon as we got to Hershey's I put it on. It was a full body windbreaker. I brought one for Jeremy but he didn't want it. I have done too many of these to care how I look as long as I was warm.
He and I went to the port-a-potties but they refused to let him in since he wasn't wearing his bib. It was athletes only. Back to the car and then back to the port-a-potties. OK - took care of buisiness. Glad to have done it. Back to the car to get the girls and LC. LC wasn't sure what was going on and his tail frequently went down because of all the commotion and the noise but whenever we petted him, he immediatly cheered up. He was with us and that was important to him and of course us.
To the start. I wanted us to start at the front to get a little more distance from the SAG wagon but it didn't work out and we started. We crossed the starting line together. Cool. I then wished him luck and took off.
Jeremy was wearing shorts and sweatpants on top of it to give him the freedom to decide. He ended up staying with the sweats the all time. On top he had the race shirt (long sleeve tech) on with a short sleeve tech shirt. It was gray camoflauge and one of his favorites.
We took off. As always, I always assess and reassess myself and I was feeling good. I was wondering if I would PR since I wanted to finish as soon as possible so I can join up with him and pace him.
We looped around and eventually ran in the park. That was pretty cool. Lee and Jessie said they spotted me during the loop around section but didn't see Jeremy. I joked around that they didn't see him because he wore camoflauge. Another eye roll.
I was running well. I was passing people right and left and I noticed my mile times were in the low 9's and some medium 8's. Maybe a PR?
Some of the course was better than others but I gotta say that the course support was phenomoneal. Not just the aid stations and the music stations. They had a ton of spectators all over the place. Not just adults mind you. They had College kids and High School kids and little kids and everyone was cheering. The atmosphere was really great.
All was really good until I got to mile 9. Nope - Still feeling great but some quick calculus told me that a PR was not gonna happen. That's ok. Still feeling well. One day I'll beat the 1:47:16 but this wasn't that day. Everytime we looped around and saw the other runners, I would look for him but didn't see him. Can't worry about it now.
At mile 10, I sent a quick voice-text letting the girls know where I was. They texted me that Jeremy was around 7. Mile 11 done and approaching the Sweet Station. I grabbed a Chocolate and trying to open it, I ripped the flap. I thought I wasn't going to be able to open it but "where there's a will, there's a way!". Haha...Got it open and tried what they taught us in the Chocolate Tasting Class which I didn't actually do. You put the chocolate on your tongue and push it to the roof of your mouth. Did that for all of a second before I gobbled it up. By the way, it was a pretty good place for the sweet station as right afterwards there's a hill. Funny.
Another hill and down and I am at 12. Last hill now and all flat. I called Jessie and told her I am approaching where the car is. They left the car to try to see me but it took them too long and I must have past them. I circled the Ice Stadium and into it for a quick half loop around the track to the finish. They couldn't enter with LC into the stadium but I found them.
I kept the "windbreaker" on me the whole time. When the sun was out and no wind, it was nice. When there was shade and/or wind, it was a little cold. The starting temperature was 37F so that makes sense.
Some specator on the course, who I saw 3 times, kept saying that I was ready for rain. Hm...While it did sprinkle a little right before the start, it was for the cold...Whatever.
I met up with Jessie, Lee and LC and Jessie using FindMyIphone told me where Jeremy was. He was doing well. Way ahead of schedule. In training, upto the 7 mile mark, he was able to keep an average MPH of 13. We were hoping he would do something like that for as long as he could.
I started backtracking the course. I got to 12 and the sun came out again which felt amazing as I was getting cold. I basked in the sun. I didn't want to climb too much of the hill knowing that he will be flying down the hill so I went slow. Jessie told me he is very close to me and then I saw him. I joined him only to be dropped by him in a heartbeat. Cool. Caught up to him at mile 12 as that started the last hill on the course.
Next to him was a girl (early 20's) with her father. They were constantly leapfrogging Jeremy as she was in pain. At the time she was trudging while crying as she had a bad leg cramp. Also, there were 4 women who kept leapfrogging Jeremy as well. Awesome. He was using them as pacers. He looked good. Made up time flying all the downhills.
While he dropped me again, I took a shortcut and had to squeeze through a fence. Oi. After that, we stayed together. This time, I gave them a big heads up and they saw him and snapped some pictures. Cool.
Around the Ice Stadium and in. He had taken a little walk but as he went in he decided to sprint. I was gonna let him go but decided to chase and I ran him to the finish.
He got his medal and we went to get his food bag. The woman there wanted to give me one but I told her I already got mine and I didn't want to be a pig. She was shocked, then smiled at me and forced another on me. Cool. Insulated lunch bag with some food in it.
He was feeling good and said that "it wasn't that bad...".
We walked to the car and the parking lot is a disaster. I'm still wearing my windbreaker and there's condensation on the inside which also means I am wet on the inside. I wanted to get the car out of the lot and then change but we sat there for so long, I jumped out, got rid of the bag and all the shirts and put on the race shirt instead. Took a while to get out of that lot. After that tho we were flying. We stopped at Arby's tho. I told Elizabeth that I haven't eaten there in a while and she said she also haven't eaten there in a few months. Hm...Last time I ate there I was I think 12. Still, ordered food and everyone else ate while I drove. Then we switched and I ate. Tasted so good...
We all had a good time but glad to be home. LC survived the trip without vomitting again even tho we hit traffic for the Holland Tunnel. We were all happy though to get out of the car in Bellerose.
There are 2 more things to really mention here. The first is usually a "sore" subject but not this time. I did NOT get chafed. YAY!!! The second is this discussion about the finishers medal that happened the Friday before the race. Hershey's posted a picture of the medal online and that caused an uproar. It's the 5th year anniversary and people expected something great. The previous 4 years had Hershey characters. This year it had a crossroads. Chocolate Avenue with something else. People got upset. They started talking about boycotting the race. Silly people. The medal is/was beautiful and big and heavy and the lanyard wasn't the cheap garbage. Jeremy was happy. I was happy. Nuff said.