The Iron Bar What's harder, law school or an ironman triathlon? Stick around and we'll see.

Well, time for a White Rock recap I guess. This will be a good de-stresser before my final in a couple of hours :)

Yesterday morning, I joined with 20,000 fellow runners to run the White Rock Marathon (well, I just ran the half, but we all started at the same place). Racing conditions were almost perfect; no wind, foggy with low hanging clouds, and about 45 degrees outside. Even though I'm just about as hot natured a person as there is, I think I'd have warmed it up about 10 degrees at the start if I could.

The race started out well. I didn't let myself get caught up in everyone's excitement at the beginning and try to run faster than I needed to, which is an improvement for me (on a side note, I think I have to stop calling them races because I'm not really competing with anyone except myself - so "runs" they are).

The first couple of miles went good. I had noticed yesterday morning, when I woke up, that something from my pre-game meal the night before wasn't sitting well, but I figured I'd run through it like I had on other long runs. As I reached the first aid station and the orange porta potties, my body told me I needed to stop. I stopped and took advantage of the facilities and then kept going, not thinking much of it.

As I hit mile four or so, I realized that it was going to be a tough run. At that point, whatever I ate had my stomach in knots. I stopped at the second aid station and once again tried to clear my body of whatever it was, but to no avail (how's that for euphemism :). I sure as hell wasn't going to give up, so I decided to just keep going and deal with it later.

Now up to yesterday my longest run ever was somewhere around 9 or 10 miles, and that's only been in the past couple of months. I don't think I appreciated the challenge of adding 3 or 4 more miles on top of that. I sure do now! That middle stretch (miles 5 to 10) was particularly rough. At one point, we ran through our neighborhood with a U-turn at the end. It was kind of cool seeing all those people running, and it was still cold enough that you could see the steam rising from the runners. At one point I wondered if it was really still as overcast as it seemed or if our steam was creating a haze that hung over the course.

The last three miles of the race were absolutely the hardest. As I turned on to the Katy Trail, I had a horrible pain in my left foot. As I have mentioned, I run in vibram five fingers and have now for about three months. While I have never gone over 10 miles in them, I have run long runs in them and never had any pain associated with running in them. After going another 15 paces or so, I had to stop. As I felt my foot and tried to stretch, I noticed that the pain was directly underneath the seam of the neoprene cover on my KSOs. The only thing I could figure was that I, in my pre-race excitement, had tightened the shoe too much (I put my nike sensor underneath the velcro strap) and it slowly bruised the top of my foot. After stretching for a few moments, I even more slowly lurched toward the finish line with a noticeable limp.

I did finish. That was the goal. I had hopes of completing it in under 2 hours, but the main goal was just to finish. There were moments, especially in the last three miles, where I thought I wasn't going to make it, but there were so many encouraging runners who would say something at just the right moment to help keep me going.

So that was the first step. Finishing an half marathon. While there were moments that I thought there was no way I could do an ironman after yesterday's performance, I know this is just a step. It was a bad run for me, but I made it through. That's what it takes, I think. You finish, you get up and run again, and you reach your goal. I have another half marathon planned for next month (although I don't know yet if it will be the 3M in Austin or the Texas Half here in Dallas). I'll do better. I'll finish in under 2 hours.

Ironman, here I come!

So it's finals season here at the law school. This means two things: (1) I should be studying and (2) I will find pretty much any reason to avoid doing so. Since a post could kill some time, I thought I would give a little background about what got me to both law school and to an ironman.

I am in my second year of law school. I didn't think I would ever go to law school, although it was something I had considered a few times throughout undergrad. I was out of school for four years between undergrad and law school, spending most of that time in Amman, Jordan and Guyuan, China. After moving back from China for a family illness, I decided to apply. I only applied to one school, the one closest to my family, was accepted, and here I am. I do enjoy it even though that first year was a bear. I work during the day (I'm an evening/part time student), so life can be horribly hectic and certain points of the semester.

My first year of law school was rough in many ways, one of which was my personal health. After the death of my grandpa (the reason for coming home), I just didn't feel like working out and running as arduously as I once had. Once school started that desire was further diminished. I just wasn't aware of the time demand that is law school.

At the end of my first year, I had gained at least 30 pounds, but the reality is that I was probably a good 50 pounds overweight. Last summer I was in Oxford, England, taking summer classes, and realized that I was tired of being overweight and out of shape. I tried to run a few times, but was winded and hurting after barely a mile.

I got home from Oxford and decided things had to change. First was the diet. I was eating out way too much last year. I lived in the law school library and there was a Chick-Fil-A across the street, so that became a staple. I love Chipotle, so I ate there a couple times a week. I figured that, after having been away from the US for a month, what better time to change those habits? It has been an up and down battle, but I am on the E2 diet, which is essentially vegan. I'm not dogmatic about it, but I try to keep it as much as I can. That alone helped me lose some weight, and I felt more energized and healthy.

Second was working out again. This became two parts, resistance workouts and running workouts. I had several times tried to start the P90X program, but always faltered after a week or so. I finally buckled down and started, and am now done with the second phase. Once I finish I am going to try the Insanity workout. I really enjoy these workouts because they are not just a simple weight or running program, which I had tried before and had only mixed results.

As for running, I couldn't figure out why I kept having horrible shin splints and knee/hip problems. After talking to a buddy of mine about barefoot running and doing some research, I decided to buy a pair of vibram five fingers and try running without shoes. I LOVE IT! I have run several 5Ks, a couple of 10Ks, a Turkey Trot, and plenty of individual runs, and I can confidently say I've never loved running more, never felt better while I'm running, and I'll never go back to running shoes. I am running constantly now, and find that I want to run even when I'm not. I will say that reading "Born to Run" helped spur me on. I would highly recommend it if you haven't read it.

So that bring me to now. I've lost about 30 pounds since August. I have been running farther and keep signing up for races to keep me running (I like having goals to shoot for). I'm running a half marathon a week from Sunday and am planning on one a month for the next four months. I realized that I wanted something more than just a run, and began looking into Ironmans. I know I'm nowhere near running one yet, but I want to. I'm going to.

I'll graduate from law school in a year and a half. I'll take the bar in July of 2011. I'll turn 30 in September (a weird thought). I am aiming for the Arizona Ironman in November of 2011. This depends on where I sit for the bar and where I'll be working. An alternative is the Lake Placid Ironman, but I don't know about running an Ironman and then trying to sit for the bar. Who knows though?

Well that's a lot more than I intended on writing. If you read all that, wow. Well done. This is all subject to change (at least minor changes), but I'm putting it out there because I want to be held accountable for completing these goals I have set.