I’ve been itching to get this message out. My home workstation was out of commission for a several weeks, and I my stubby fingers are unable to swiftly navigate the keys on the laptop, so here is my latest update.
Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the year of the Rabbit, those born in 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, and 1999 are articulate, talented, and ambitious, virtuous, reserved, and have excellent taste.
During this freezing season of wintry mix of snow, sleet and ice, I just decided to start an actual fitness and running blog at www.runwithnoah.com. Please forward this link to all your friends and family to read about my exploits and get tips that I have learned over the course of my limited running career. Please sign up and subscribe to it to keep updated and get motivated to reach your fitness goals.
Also, I wanted to step up my running and take on the Historical Boston Marathon in 2012 by qualifying in the Steamtown Marathon located outside of Scranton, PA this October. My pace at Steamtown will be a heart attack time of 7:38 min/mile.
To prepare for this race, I am currently taking some time off from running and doing P90X, you might have seen it on TV. Even Oprah and Sheryl Crowe have gone through the program with awesome results. My friend Scott mentioned that he did P90X, and he looks awesomely in great shape. And even with a bad back, he’s going to complete the Panama City Ironman in November. He never did any races before and he decides to tackle a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. Now if he does that, I could at least qualify for the Boston Marathon!
I will be posting my 30-day pictures next week. I am very happy with the progress and can’t wait for the final picture at the end of 90 days. Irene is also doing the program with me and we both plan on donating all of our cloths and creating a whole new wardrobe!
In addition, my friend Marybeth, who is extremely busy and travels all over the county is finding time to work P90X into her schedule. It’s great doing a program like this with friends, so please contact me if you want to start something or have any questions about fitness!
Another component to my success will be Shakeology. It’s an awesome nutritional supplement that will reduce your weight and lower your cholesterol. With 70 healthy ingredients in 1 glass, it’s the most nutritious meal you will ever put into your body, and it tastes fantastic. Again, please call me if you want at least one of your meals to be healthy!
Now back to the PUKE!
While the kids promptly got ready for their trip to visit Mickey and his friends early that Thursday morning, I awoke with my belly being unsettled and unable to keep anything in. My thoughts turned to the food I ate the night before. Never again will I decide to eat a tub of Chili from Costco and left over brown rice no matter if I was going to leave for a week. Just toss it! I usually make a healthy Chili before a long run. Now, I will be doing something else prior to any races.
I’ll leave the details about my bodily functions for another time. So, I survived the plane trip to the Sunshine State doing my best to will my body past this ailment. We checked in and then left the hotel to head over to the expo to pick up our bibs. Everyone in the Lam Family will be pinning on bib for a race this weekend, which will start on Friday morning with Emily’s 5K, then Elijah’s 200m, and followed by Zachary’s 1 miler. Friday is Irene’s Half Marathon, and the running weekend will be capped by my Marathon. My brother-in-law will also be doing the Marathon with me, actually he’ll be done probably be taking a nap in his hotel room by the time I finish.
I struggled walking to the Expo Center, doing my best to focus and maintaining a positive attitude for the kids as we got our bibs. We grabbed a bunch of samples as we passed each vendor. Normally I would have looped the show floor looking for deals, this time I just wanted to scan for anything good, and leave right away. The Disney Marathon running hat looked like a nice memento for Zachary and me.
As we walked towards the registers, I get a glimpse of Elijah bending over at the waist and upchucking his entire lunch. I closed my eyes and shook my head. And immediately some Disney Cast Members started to walk away. Not sure if they were going to get someone to clean it up or were just plain disgusted. I notice several people dodging the vomit, by hopping over it. After paying for the hat, the mess was being worked on. Superior Disney service!
Remember the samples we picked up. For whatever reason, Elijah can detect the smallest amount of nuts in any recipe. The Labarbar sample looked like an awesome healthy snack. It’s gluten and dairy free, however Elijah and nuts do not mix!
Later that day, still in a fog, we placed the kids in the Cub Den Childcare so that the grownups in our family could have an intimate Birthday dinner for Irene at the award winning Victoria and Albert’s in the Grand Floridian Disney Resort. Irene and I enjoyed a 10-course meal, which included truffles, lobster, caviar, exotic meats, and awesomely tasty stuff uncommonly found in parts of the USA and Europe. The captain and servers were very knowledgeable and explained each course as it was bought to us. Some dishes were served tableside; others had dry ice for the illusion of the food floating on a cloud. I did my best to enjoy and stay at the table. Next time, baring any ailments I will really enjoy it.
The next morning, more like early in the morning, Emily and Irene traveled to the 5K start over at Epcot. The boys and I stayed home, as I needed the rest. I so wanted to see Emily do her first 5K, but it was best to wait for her to tell me about the race when she got back. She entered the room and walked in like nothing happened as she normally does, she then smiles and displays her Buzz and Woody Medallion. How much more proud could I be, my daughter to achieve something so cool. Heck, I don’t have one of those medallions!
We had a small breakfast and headed out for the boys races. Elijah was in the third heat, and waited patiently for the announcer to scream into the microphone, “Go!” Elijah held his big sister’s and with a big smile he crossed the finish line! I did my best to take pictures as a bunch of children ran toward me. As he was draped with his Fun Run Medallion, I gave him a big hug and kiss in the middle of a sea of children and parents walking past.
Now it was Zachary’s turn. We waited at the field next to the track. As everyone started to gather in front of the start, Zachary turns to me and says, “I need to go bad!” and I mean go pee. I tell him, “You better run fast to the finish line.” And off he went! All the children looped the ESPN Sports Complex. He looked strong as he headed toward the finish line! He grabbed his medal, took his finishers picture and made a beeline to the restroom. The beaming smile from his face was extraordinary. With the kid’s races over, I was feeling much better!
Later that day, we met up with Raymond and Frances and had dinner at the Wilderness Lodge where we called “home” for several days. We called it the night early so that Irene could get a little rest before the race. We set the alarms for 3:00am because the race needs to finish early enough before all the vacationers hit the parks. Her race takes her from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom and back. She headed off in the cold dark night, and it really did not warm up. A couple of hours later, I gathered the kids and headed to the finish line. Disney makes it convenient to view split times on the Internet, so I had an idea of when she was going to finish. We eventually saw her at mile 12 where she stopped to give each of the kids a kiss. She crossed the finish line and showed us her Donald Duck Medallion, which she immediately got engraved.
Now it’s my turn! Sunday morning I put on my running gear, took the bus, and headed toward the start in Epcot. Raymond and I waited for a little while in the started village, and then took a 15 minute walk to the start. Ray headed over to his corral for the fast runners and I waited in my slower people corral with a bunch of enthusiastic runners bouncing and stretching doing their best to stay warm. There was a big screen showing some highlights of the course near the starting line.
With each start, fireworks shot in the air to give all the runners a boost as Mickey and Minnie cheered each one of us a good run. As usually, immediately after the starting line, a bunch of runners head towards the side of the road to take a potty break. For whatever reason, my bladder seemed to be weak for this race, because I was pulling over very often. Maybe it was the constant sea of trees on the highways. By the way, this was the first time I saw a lot of girls also run to the side of the road. There was a lot of open highway between the parks. Disney did their best to keep us entertained with different and unknown Disney Characters on the side of the road, ready to take pictures and cheer us on.
In the parks, the crowds cheered, then there was a lull. You really need to dig down and keep your “why” in front of you. What kept me going was thinking about Elijah’s big embrace with his tiny arms that do their best to wrap around me for a hug. That warmth from his heart makes me want to continue! I finished with a time a lot slower than expected, due to all the pit stops and picture taking. It was worth it. I think with each new marathon you want to take in the sights, and should you repeat a race it will be more serious and focused to best a PR.
While Disney is a unique experience, my favorite race so far will be the NYC Marathon! The crowds there are unparalleled and provide the support to carry you to the finish. I vote it as the race to do, if you only do one!
Next time we will do Disney, we will be doing the Goofy Challenge, which involves the Half Marathon and Full Marathon in the same weekend! Yikes! Then I think about Scott and his Ironman Medallion. Then doing a Half and a Full on 2 separate days should be easy, yeah right.
It’s going to be fun running an entire marathon with the entire family. I have 13 more years to wait for Elijah to be old enough to race. Until then, we will be enjoying our shorter races. In fact, Emily has agreed to the Cow Harbor 10K in September!
Please visit www.runwithnoah.com and enjoy the updates! And let me know how I can help you with your fitness goals like so many of you have!
Gung Hay Fat Choy!
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