Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure 5K

Fate works in interesting ways.

I was not planning to run this race at all. Just wasn't on my radar but less than a week before the race, I was talking to a running buddy about, what else, running when Nitza walked in on our conversation. Nitza is currently fighting breast cancer.

I can't quite call Nitza a colleague from work, though we do work together in a way. She's in the human resources and labor relations office of one the agencies my Union represents, which means we very often sit at opposing sides of the table and have argued countless times. However I have no reservations calling her a friend. She has been with the agency for several years now and sure, we fight but its all with the best of intentions and absolutely no hard feelings. It's the job.

So, Nitza walks in on us talking about running, turns around and asks me "Are you gonna be with us on Sunday?". It was her look more than what she said. A million thoughts rushed into my head and  flashed before my eyes. "Are you gonna be with us?" It wasn't that she needed me personally to be there. It was more about support. Group support for her and the many women suffering from breast cancer. All this happened in a millisecond but for me the answer was obvious. "I'll be there." was all I could say and left. Suddenly, I never wanted to do a race more than right at that moment.

Thankfully, the race organizers set up shop in an empty store on one of Puerto Rico's biggest malls to sign up people right up to the very last day so on Friday I walked in and signed up. It was all very organized and quick. I think it took me all of 10 minutes from filling out the form to paying and walking out.

I was not quite ready for what I encountered on Sunday. This was the biggest draw of any race I have ever done in Puerto Rico. Bigger than the World's Best 10K even. The atmosphere was electric. Everyone seemed happy to be there and there were A LOT of teams from different companies and organizations. All decked out in some form of pink or white, which of course made me stand out more than usual with a blue shirt. But the shirt included in registration was cotton and not available in my size so I got one for my wife.

The starting line was an interesting exercise. There were parallel starting lines for walkers and runners, which covered the entire avenue sidewalk to sidewalk. I guess it makes sense. The starting gun was for both groups at the same time, with the runners naturally taking the lead and leaving the walkers to bring up the rear. Eventually, both lanes converged into one huge group but by then, everyone is pretty much where they need to be speed-wise so there was no unnecessary traffic problems. At least not enough for it to be a problem.

Which brings me to the race itself. Running was not really the point here. Oh, I'm sure the runners up front had a great time sprinting down to the finish but for the immense majority gathered this was about something else. I was plenty happy with the PR in my previous race and had no intention of chasing a number on this one so after taking off and posting my first mile somewhere in the 12's I decided to step back and walk most of the way. There was just this great vibe all around and I wanted to take it all in. So without any set intervals I walked some then ran some all the way to the finish. At 43 minutes and change, this is my slowest 5K in years but who cares?

This is not the first time they do this race in Puerto Rico but I do think this was the biggest so far. Hopefully it will get bigger. I do want to give people who are thinking of doing this race next year some advice though. Respect the distance. Sadly, a lot of people came to the race thinking that since they were just walking, it would be easy. It wasn't. The heat and humidity conspired for some grueling conditions and the amount of people who ended up on stretchers or an ambulance was large enough for the news to report on it. So get some miles under you before the race and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

I never did run into Nitza that day. With so many people there it would have taken a miracle but still, I wore the tag and ran in her name. For her, and all the women suffering from the disease. 

Kamikaze WDW - The Magic Kingdom

There's a logic to the madness. You can read part I and part II of this story to know what's going on.

We made it out of Puerto Rico by beating a tropical storm, got to Orlando and managed to settle into our hotel room. Now, it was time to get down to business. After a not-so-good-night's sleep (the girls were still on an adrenaline rush from it all) we woke up on Friday and had a good, strong breakfast to get ready for the day ahead. When we exited the hotel to wait for a bus to the Magic Kingdom we were pleasantly surprised to find one already waiting for us. So, on to the Happiest Place on Earth!

Here is an interesting fact about our day at The Magic Kingdom: We spent the entire day, from morning until the fireworks show that night, in Fantasyland. Yes, the entire day. Not only that, we didn't get to do everything there was to do there, including PhilharMagic and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh among others. I have to admit, I wasn't too sad to miss It's a Small World.

So, what did we do? Well, after the requisite pictures at the entrance and the oohs and aahs of walking towards the castle, (which never gets old by the way. Plus it was my youngest daughter's first time in Disney) we headed straight for Fairytale Garden to meet Angelica's favorite princess: Merida!

Let me tell you guys, this moment made all the planning, hassle and worrying worth it. When Angelica saw Merida, the look on her face... Merida started talking to her but Angelica was completely stricken in awe. Then she started to touch her hair. It's as if she was saying "You are real! Look at your hair!" Of course, I was too busy enjoying the moment to do stuff like, you know, take pictures. Thankfully, Disney came to the rescue here. I paid to include Memory Maker in my vacation package so they took care of that for me. My wife also lapsed out of her own personal coma to take some pics of the girls afterwards trying out the bow and arrow. They loved it! 20 minutes into the trip and it had already payed for itself. Everything from here on was pure profit.

And folks, we did some stuff. From Merida we went to the Mad Tea Party, Dumbo, the Carousel and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I was a bit concerned that the girls were gonna find it too scary but they absolutely loved it. Angelica stayed with Grandma for that one though. Not tall enough.

On Dumbo my wife took this picture which I thought was priceless. Can you see why? My wife was calling Angelica and this was the result.

From there we made a short stop by Rapunzel's tower for something I had promised the girls we'd do...

Everyone around thought it was pretty cute. We even got some applause! Veronica actually wanted to wait to see if she would come out. I promised we would meet her later.

By then, it was time to head over to The Crystal Palace for our reservations with Winnie the Pooh.

Here, things got a little weird. Veronica, who is usually fearless, did not want her picture taken with any of the characters here. I don't know why. Not a Winnie the Pooh fan it seems.

The Festival of Fantasy Parade was next. I tell you, these girls simply can't get enough of the princesses. They cheered for every single one they saw in the parade. Thankfully we were saving the best part for later.

After the parade, we could tell the girls were exhausted. It wasn't part of the plan but we felt it best to head over to the hotel, have them sleep a couple of hours, then regroup and return to finish what was left on our schedule. Frankly, I don't think we were gonna be able to go through such a long day without a break. 

So they slept, then they overslept. It was raining so there was no point in waking them up so I waited until it passed to do so. I was forced to rearrange some fast passes and we ended up missing the one we had for Cinderella and Rapunzel but since the girls were able to rest, we managed to get all we wanted to do even with the extra lines. Besides, this was the most important part of the visit: Meeting the Princesses.

After we got back in the park, we first met Anna and Elsa. My own little Anna (Veronica) and Elsa (Maria Rosa) were speechless. I enjoyed seeing their faces as the sisters from Frozen took the time to talk to them. Not that my girls said much. They just pretty much nodded at everything they were told. The look on their faces say it best I think.

Cinderella and Rapunzel were pretty much the same experience in that my girls were just in awe. These are the "regular" princesses after all. By that I mean that when they are not playing Frozen, Maria says she is Rapunzel and Veronica says she is Cinderella. We were really lucky and happy that these two were together in the same experience. Veronica managed to tell Cinderella about how much she loves her shoes. Even at the Princess level, girls talk about shoes it seems.

 I should point out, that Angelica became a total character groupie! We literally had to restrain her from running over to the characters and giving them hugs while it was some other person's turn. She might have ruined a couple of pictures... I would grab her hand and explain we had to wait in line and she would cry and give me this face like "But Rapunzel is right there! Why do we have to wait?! I mean she is right within my reach Dad! I don't get it." Such is life. When our turn would come up, my brother would joke that it was time "to release the Kraken".  She was sneaky too. She would wait until just the right moment to escape my grasp.

From there we went to Enchanted Tales with Belle, where my oldest got to play the part of Maurice, Belle's father. I wouldn't mind more character experiences like this one. It was interactive, the kids loved it and you get to take pictures. It was one of my favorite moments on this trip.

 

Then, we rode on Journey of the Little Mermaid which is a classic "Dark Ride" It's so full of color and so many things going on. Everyone loved this one. I forgot to take any pics here though...

Finally, we missed Celebrate the Magic. The show where they project all sorts of stuff on the Castle from different Disney films. It started just as we were exiting the Little Mermaid ride and were taking a restroom break. We were just caught out of position I guess. The projection can only be seen from the front and Journey of the Little Mermaid is behind it. So while that was happening we made our way to a better spot so we could watch Wishes.

If Wishes causes the jaws in adults to unhinge, what do you think the effect is on a child?  Plus Tinkerbell "flew" right over us! This is one of those "moments" that parents live for. Veronica kept looking back at me like "Is this really happening?" I did not want it to end. Sadly, it did.

Of course, after that "moment" was over my body quickly reminded that we were on the tail end of a very, very long day and while the girls had been able to sleep during the afternoon, I hadn't. My feet were destroyed. In fact, I they hadn't hurt this much since running the marathon. The walk back to the room was painful. I was actually concerned I would have trouble getting up the next morning. I was exhausted. But the memories... no amount of pain will take those away.

The Winds of Change

So a lot of stuff going on in The Fat Runner household...

We're cross-training ourselves into shape. Hopefully a nice shape. As far as shapes go, round doesn't seem to agree with my running. The biggest change by far though, has been nutritional. A complete 180 degree turn in that area and so far, our kitchen makeover has proven to be for the better. We have severely cut back on fast food and other processed stuff and the effects are already being felt.

Chicken Sausage Frittata

 My wife started feeling funny about two days after we started. I've been thinking of a word to describe what she was feeling and the best I could come up with was malaise. A general feeling of malaise. She felt weak, with no real desire to do much. I thought at first that it was the onset on a cold or something like that. Then, she told me "I feel like I need to eat candy or something sweet." Well, she didn't need to say anything else after that. She was going through withdrawal. A natural side effect of eating home cooked meals instead of processed is that you consume a lot less sugar. Sure enough, a couple of days later she was feeling great and I'm kind of surprised about how great actually. She is also doing P90X3 and she wakes up every morning charging to do it. Amazing how we get used to things and let them take over.

Then there's me. After a week of eating as clean as I have in a very long time, I was faced with the situation I was kind of dreading. I was on the road, no lunch from home and hungry. I had to eat something so after much pondering I settled for a Mexican food place and had some tacos. I went heavy on the salad and went for chicken instead of beef trying to at least minimize the damage. An hour later I was regretting that decision. I had to get to the bathroom. Bad. The tacos were really not agreeing with me or my stomach. I've never had any problems with eating fast food. Believe me. But after only a week of better nutrition my body just said "Hey! What happened here? You were throwing in the good stuff!"

Panko breaded Tilapia, asparagus and rice with beans

And it's not like we have been lacking flavor-wise. I love to cook so I took this opportunity to revamp our diet as a challenge. Chicken Marsala, Mexican Tostadas, Open-faced Bacon and Egg Sandwiches... it has all been made at home with healthy recipes and it has all been good. Of course, I've had to manage my time a little better to be able to cook. My wife is taking care of dinners (and subsequent lunch for me the next day) while I do breakfasts and try to keep it interesting on the weekends. Not only are we feeling great but the cut on fast food, as I mentioned in the beginning, has been severe, which is a good thing. Where we were doing 13-15 meals eating out, the average these past two weeks has been about 3-4. Not bad right?

Four Ways To Energize Your Day & Clear Your Brain - Jeff Galloway Tips

OK gang here is another set of great tips from the Main Man, the Michael Jordan of running, the Purvaeyor of the Run/Walk Method, Jeff Galloway!

It's natural to become focused on the big things in life, and worry about outside forces, building stress.  A few simple lifestyle adjustments can result in greater control over attitude and energy, while reducing stress and fatigue.  Yes, you can exert more control over your life, produce positive attitude hormones, and blend together body, mind and spirit by planning and taking action.
 
•        Walk or run, one day and a walk (or cross train) the next.  While the exertion will wake up the muscles, you're away from the phone, allowing the mind a little freedom.  Most who start with a blank mental state, finish their exercise session with the day planned, and a few new ways to deal with problems.  Others like to walk/run during lunch hour, while munching on an energy bar.  This can clear out morning stress and prepare mind-body for the challenges of the afternoon.  Many evening exercisers believe that the weight of the day's stress is erased or contained with the after-work workout.  Scheduling these outings gives you control over your existance.
•        Don't sit--walk!.  The addition of a few extra short walks, throughout the day, will energize the body and activate the mind.  Park farther away from work, the food store, the transit station, etc.  Many of my clients use a step counter for motivation and calorie counting.  It helps to find one that is consistent and reliable (usually @ $30).  Shoot for 10,000 steps a day.  You are rewarded for  getting out of your chair (or  the couch) more often.  These short walks burn fat, which adds up (up to 30 pounds a year!).  The best reward is the head clearing effect, which can power you through the mid morning or mid afternoon energy crises.  Even a 3-4 minute “recess” walk at work, can result in clearer thinking, more energy, and greater self-confidence.   
•        Eat more frequently.  Each time you eat, even a small snack, you'll boost your energy level. The longer you wait to eat, the more likely your metabolism will slump into drowsiness and laziness.  This also means that you're not burning many calories.  If you divide up your daily calorie budget into 6-9 snacks a day you'll burn more fat (up to 10 pounds a year).  Eat a snack every 2-3 hours, and you can feel better all day.  It helps to choose foods that have (percentage of calories vs total calories) about 20% protein, about 15% fat and the rest in complex carbohydrate.  This combination will leave you satisfied longer with fewer calories consumed.  To experience a fat loss, consumption can be managed through websites or journals.  For more information, see A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO FAT BURNING by Jeff and Barbara Galloway.
•        Help someone exercise. The psychological benefits are significant when you help someone improve the quality of their life.  Offer to walk (run, hike) with your spouse, parent, friend co-worker, child—or all of the above.  My books WALKING & GETTING STARTED have proven programs with motivation which can lead you  and your “coach-ee” through the training. 


Be sure to visit RunInjuryFree.com for more information.

"My First Steps" Charity Ride

Interesting turn of events. Didn't expect my first "race recap" of 2015 to be about cycling but here we are.

Actually, this is not really a race recap as this was not a race, but it's the cycling equivalent of a race. Sure, there are cycling races but since I don't foresee me participating in any of those at this time, these group rides will serve the same purpose for me. They are a measure of where I am fitness-wise, just like when I run in races.

When it comes to cycling, I'm just barely getting my feet wet. Up until this week my longest ride had been 20 miles. While my behind might not agree with me, the miles I have put in so far have been relatively flat and easy. I try to put some effort into it and ride fast but up until now, I have been doing the running equivalent of a short, easy run.

Which is why I found it extremely weird when an old friend invited me to a group ride for charity, that I said yes.

He literally contacted me right after I had done my first (and longest) 20 mile ride. I thought about saying no. I did not know if I was ready for that. Not only the miles but keeping up with a group. He tried to ease my concerns: "Look, we are gonna try to keep the group together. 15-17 miles per hour tops. If you get tired, you can ride in the sweep van." The flyer said it was from Toa Baja (two towns from mine) to the town square of Vega Alta (my hometown). Could I stick with a group riding that fast? Could I handle the mileage? I was scared but I could tell he wanted the ride to succeed and help out this center for children so I said yes.

Captain's Meeting and registration

 Well, as it turns out, both my concerns were not a problem at all. I managed to stick with the group for most of the ride and I managed to ride the whole 40 miles without need to van of shame. The problem my friends, were the climbs.

The freaking,  Everest-like, who-the-heck-came-up-with-this-route, someone-get-a-defibrillator climbs.

See, I was invited to this thing under false pretenses. That route in the flyer was just half of the total ride and it said nothing about riding a Tour de France-level climb. Well, maybe it was not Tour de France-like but it might as well be to me. The guy who just started cycling a month ago. The whole thing started nice enough. We left Toa Baja and rode through "La Ruta del Ciclista" then headed to the town of Dorado. Riding in the peloton (the ride group) was no problem and I was maintaining 15 and 16 mph without much effort. When you see many cyclists riding close together like that, it's because they are working together to beat the wind. I couldn't really feel any difference while in the group but now I look at the data and see that where I usually averaged 14mph I was pulling out 15 and 16 mph without any effort at all.

Ready to head out!

It was a beautiful day and we were riding along the beach. Once in Dorado we climbed a pretty steep, but short hill. It was tough but it didn't last long so I put in some muscle and kept going. We crossed Dorado from east to west until we got to my hometown of Vega Alta where we turned south to get to the town square. It was in this part where I faced my first challenge. I don't know how long it was but we started to climb, and climb, and it would not end. My breathing got heavy, people where passing me left and right and I slowed down to a crawl. I ran out of gears on my bike. I just wanted this torture to end. After what seemed like forever (actually 9 minutes) I reached the top and we did our first stop.

First regrouping stop.

I looked for my friend and told him how hard that climb was for me. His answer: "Yeah, well it's gonna get a lot worse." What?

Turned out that first stop was just to regroup everyone after that climb so we could arrive as a whole group to the real stop which was the Town Square in Vega Alta. My wife brought my daughters to cheer me up. I was so happy to see them. While there, they had the official ceremony where they handed over the donation to the children's home. They were planning on donating $2,000 and ended up giving $5,000 so it was a total success all around. I was given a pack with 2 cup cakes which I ate and put in some new Gatorade bottles on my bike. I left my bottles at home. Rookie mistake.

Two of my girls cheering me on.

Before leaving the square, one of the organizers got on the mic and warned everyone about the upcoming climb and urging people to not quit. Famous last words. Not 5 minutes after starting back up we started to climb. And we did nothing but climb for the next hour and it was some of the steepest roads I have ever seen in my life. Actually I have seen them before. It's my hometown. I just always traveled them by car. I tried all I could to stay on the bike but on two occasions, I was forced to get off and walk up the hill. Not very proud of that moment but that's what you get for biting off more than you can chew. It sure didn't help to hear one of the guys in the support crew bragging about how the sweep van was full of people.

All this climbing spread out the peloton of course, so a couple of re-grouping stops were required to keep everyone together but eventually we made it out of the mountains and unto the main roads where we made our final stop at another gas station. We were 12 miles away from getting back but the climbs were over.

Final stop before finish. 12 more miles?!

After a quick descent, it was flat all the way back to Toa Baja. Would've been a lot easier if not for a bit of trouble I ran into. On the descent I was blocked by some people on the group who were going slower and I got separated from the peloton. When I reached the flats, I encountered some pretty fierce wind in the opposite direction and it slowed me down something terrible. Without the protection of the peloton I fell behind and fought the wind all the way to the finish. As if I wasn't tired enough from all the climbing. 

But, I made it. And I wasn't last either, even though I didn't arrive with the group. They were serving lunch for all the riders but I was too fried. I looked for my friend, choked him to death, then told his corpse to call me whenever they were doing it again. Thing is, I really don't feel that sore even now. It's not like after running the marathon for example where I could hardly move and instead of wishing to never go through something like that again, I'm actually angry enough at myself to go train so I can be able to do it again except better next time. Masochism is a terrible thing.

Getting Organized

I think it's safe to say that triathlon is not for the disorganized. 

First of all, in case you guys were not aware of this, you don't train for all three parts of a tri at the same time. With the exception of certain workouts (known as "bricks") where you practice two sports at a time to get used to the feel of it, you train all three disciplines separately. While that might make some people sigh in relief that they don't have to swim, bike and run every day, the reality is that you have to figure out your week with a lot of precision if you want to get all your training in there. That means running at tight ship at home and an even tighter schedule.

The last two weeks have been the first with full-on running and cycling and hopefully this week I can introduce swimming to the equation. It has been pretty interesting and quite honestly a lot of fun so far. Yes, fun. While it's easy to get anxious about changes like that, everything has fallen into place kind of naturally. Of, course I'm working hard to not over-do it. The worse thing you can do is to try to do everything at once. Here are some new things I'm doing.

I love the smell of running in the morning...

In the past I have tried to avoid running early in the morning. With the exception of some long runs, all my running usually happens in the afternoon/at night. I try to protect my sleep time as much as I can plus, I admit, there have been some mornings where I have woken up and said "no way" and went back to sleep so I avoid early morning runs. But, you can only cram so much in a week and if you intend to swim, bike and run enough you need to make more efficient use of your time. To be able to swim in the afternoons/nights, I have to run in the mornings. Pretty much all training plans I have seen have two days per week where you both swim and run. As I get ready to start swimming, I have cleared Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to do it so I wake up at 5am to run. It hasn't been as bad as I thought. In fact after running in the morning and taking a shower I feel refreshed and ready to go. It's the waking up part that sucks. We'll see if that sticks.

5:32AM??!!

The wonderful World of cycling

I'm enjoying cycling. I really am. It's a completely different feeling from running. So far I have been careful to acclimate properly by keeping the rides short. As I remain on the saddle for longer and longer, my nether regions complain accordingly but I think (hope) it's getting better. Apart from riding near my house I have been going to the linear park several times as I feel safer there (no traffic = good) and I went to "La Ruta del Ciclista" (The Cyclist's Route). It's a section of public road that the police closes on Sundays from 6:30am to 11:00am so that cyclists and runners have a "car-free zone". The road runs parallel to the beach so you get this breathtaking view while you ride. Awesome stuff. If you do the whole route and come back it's 10 miles. I was a bit nervous being my first time and being the new guy but not only did I find tons of people riding there but also people at all levels of fitness. I see myself going there regularly. I was surprised to ride the whole 10 miles in less than an hour. I'm cycling faster than I thought I would be. Believe me, I'm not complaining. There is one byproduct of cycling that I wasn't expecting but it's been great so far. Riding the day after a run really helps with my recovery it seems. It might sound weird, (how can you recover if you are working out) but I feel better the days I ride after a running day than on the days I don't ride. Interesting...

Isn't technology wonderful?

It has taken some tweaking but I'm getting my tech set up just the way I want. First, my Garmin Connect account. Garmin recently launched a new version of Garmin Connect that is very customizable. It allows you to get a pretty comprehensive glance at what you are doing.

If you own a Garmin device, I invite you to take the time to set up this page to your liking. Move things around, add and take off things according to your needs. Once you do, it will make your life so much easier. I have also linked my Garmin account with MyFitnessPal. Doing so sends my calorie consumption from MyFitnessPal to Garmin Connect and in return Garmin sends my workouts and calories burned to MyFitnessPal. Isn't that awesome? Plus, Garmin sends my workouts directly to both Strava and Beginner Triathlete. In the past I have talked about how much I like Garmin Connect but find their social component a bit lacking. Since I was having trouble with Dailymile, and since Strava seems to be the weapon of choice for cyclists and triathletes I'm sending data there. Having my info on these two sites lets me connect with other people and motivate each other.

So look me up in those sites if you want to connect. At Garmin Connect I'm TheFatRunner, at Strava I'm Frank Pizarro and uziel5000 at Beginner Triathlete. You can find me at Dailymile under TheFatRunner21. I still have not given up trying to make it work so we'll see. You might still be able to catch me there.

So multi-sport training is under way! What I still haven't started is an actual, structured training plan. So far I'm just logging time in all three sports. As the year moves further along and I set an actual race (and race date) then I can dive into one of those.

The Deal With Fast Food

I was watching a documentary called Fed Up over the weekend about our collective addiction to sugar and processed food. I think it's something worth checking out. It really made me think about our eating habits. I say "our" because it's not just my habits but my family's. I hate to think I'm passing some really bad things down to my girls and it worried me a bit.

About the documentary itself, I invite you to watch it and formulate your own opinions on it. In my case it made me think about my eating when I was growing up and how it has changed as processed food has become more accessible. After careful analysis, here are some things I found interesting.

When I was a kid, fast food was not as widespread as it is today. The first big chain to make a serious expansion in Puerto Rico was Burger King. There were others of course but back then they started popping up more frequently. If we wanted to eat some Burger King, we had to drive 30 minutes to a mall in San Juan to get some. My Mom worked in San Juan so if she wanted to take us, she had to come from work, pick us up then go back to San Juan to eat there. Needless to say, she had to be in a very good mood to do that and we had to earn it. There had better been some good grades or something like that if we were to dare ask to go to Burger King. 

The main source of food was my Grandmother's cooking, and it was good. She was like most Grandma's in that she never measured anything so most of her recipes died with her, much to my dismay. This woman was a monster cook. Any native dish I eat is still compared to her version to this day. So, Burger King was simply a treat we would get once in a while. If it was a really special occasion, we would go to Pizza Hut. Fine dining at its finest if you asked me. "We are going to Pizza Hut? I better go air out the good clothes. You don't wear shorts to Pizza Hut."

Then came McDonald's and their massive expansion in the island which forced Burger King to reciprocate. The success of both chains ushered the entry of the others. You know, Wendy's, KFC, Taco Bell and they were everywhere. By the mid 90's they had taken over the island and things changed. I don't think for the best.

My Grandmother's health deteriorated and was unable to cook for us. My Mom worked so we started to eat what was accessible and convenient. Where back in the day it took 30 minutes to get a Whopper, today there are three Burger Kings within a mile of my house. Three. Right next to one another. To those three Burger Kings in a town that previously had no fast food joints you can add a McDonald's, 2 Church's Fried Chickens, 2 Taco Bells, 2 Subways, a KFC, a Wendy's , a Papa John's and a Pizza Hut. I have no problem picking up a pizza in shorts and flip flops at Pizza Hut these days. Change indeed. And that is just my hometown. I'm not even talking about the adjacent towns that have other choices within 5 to 10 minutes of my house.

We eat way too much fast food at my house. It's a sad fact but it's true. There is not a week that goes by when we don't eat it. We have allowed convenience to overtake our desire for health. We go to these places and eat and we don't just settle for basics either. It's the combo meal which means soda and of course no small potions either. For a while now, I have been going to these places looking for healthier choices but that doesn't really exist does it? At least not equally. I mean, why pick a salad when you can have a combo meal a lot less? It's certainly a model that prays on those strapped for cash. They literally penalize you for making the healthier choice to switch your beverage to bottled water by paying more for something that is actually cheaper. Nope. There really are no healthier choices in those places. Only the illusion of choice.

This isn't some elitist rant asking for the eradication of fast food and I'm not telling anyone what to do. This is a very personal thing I'm sharing here. I still eat fast food and plenty of it but changes have to be made. Cook cannot be a 4 letter word. My wife has agreed that we need to make more home-cooked meals but I have to step up my game as well. As the resident Chef of the house I'm gonna have to put more effort on this. I see my daughter's whining over soda or saying they don't like something my wife cooked without trying it because they'd rather have some burger, that is my fault.

The line has been drawn.

If you want to learn more about the documentary you can see the trailer at www.fedupmovie.com 

The Fat Runner in the The Machine

We start 2015 with a big announcement. As those of you who follow me on Instagram already got to see, I finally bought a road bike! It was a very long time coming and I can forget about buying anything for any occasion for the next several years but I finally got a bike. 

World, meet The Machine.

It's a Giant Defy 1 road bike. Right off the bat, let me say I love the name of the bike. Defy. Words to live by here in The Fat Runner. Here's a fun fact: Not being able to buy something right away gives you plenty of time to obsess about the details. And folks, I obsessed.

Bikes are expensive and at least in my case, not something you are gonna buy often. I wanted to make sure I was getting as much bang for my buck as possible. I wanted to still be in love with the bike 5 years from now and beyond. So I drew up a list of specifications of what I thought the bike needed to have in order for my conscience to be clean. What ensued was me diving off the deep end of the cycling world, consuming everything I could about bikes and how they are made and how they work. By the time I actually bought the bike, I knew more than many of the people in the bike shops about the models I looked at.

 Essentially, this was my list of requirements. There might be stuff there some of you might not be familiar with but that's OK, I'll explain things as they come up during the year.

1. Aluminum frame - Carbon fiber is like, THE material of choice for modern bikes but they are way too expensive. Aluminum is light and sturdy. Important in my case where the weight of the rider is an issue.

2. Endurance geometry - Different bikes have different shapes depending on the needs of the rider. "Faster" bikes have a more aggressive shape that makes you sit lower and further forward. Endurance (or sportive or comfort bikes among other names) bikes are not as upright as hybrid or recreational bikes but not as aggressive as the racier models. I thought this was important. Since I have no previous experience, I did not want to buy a bike that was too aggressive to the point where I just could not hold the position comfortably and end up not riding.

3. Shimano 105 - The components or groupset are the stuff that make the bike work. Brakes, shifters, crank, etc... bike manufacturers usually install these in groups so that everything works together. I knew early on that I wanted at least a 10-speed bike and at the bottom of that you have Shimano Tiagra which is very good but if I could swing it, I wanted the groupset above that one, Shimano 105. The higher the groupset, the lighter, smoother and more durable it is. From the time I started checking bikes out, to the time I actually bought it, there was a model change and Shimano 105 went from 10-speed to 11 speed. Score!

4. Carbon fork - Aluminum has a reputation for being harsh on the road. Most manufacturers work around this problem by installing a carbon fork. It's the thingy that holds the front wheel. This helps damp the ride which helps a lot, especially in longer rides. The Machine comes with a carbon seat tube as well as the fork. Bonus!

Right from the start, the Defy jumped at me. It really had everything I was looking for but it was at the very top of my budget limit so I tried very hard to find other options and try to save some bucks. I saw many bikes in the category and if you are shopping for one they are all pretty good. Bianchi Impulso, Scott Speedster, Cannondale Synapse, Trek Domane are some of the bikes you can check out.

But in the end, the Defy's reputation won me over. It's like the Honda Accord of bikes. It always seems to win it's category in magazine awards and it comes very well recommended so I decided to spend a bit more money and go for the "sure thing".

And so far I could not be happier. Road bikes look "weak". Even at this level, they are very light and streamlined compared to what you find at your local mega store so I was obviously concerned about it holding my weight. But I didn't need  to. Once on it, the bike feels sturdy and very stable. Riding this after riding my wife's mountain bike for a while last year, is akin to going from a Ford Pinto to driving a Ferrari Enzo. It's pretty amazing. I used to be afraid of shifting on any bike. The ensuing "rat-tat-tat... clank!" that came with it felt like the bike would brake at any moment but on this one, it just happens effortlessly. "Click." and that's it.

I will share more as I get more used to riding. You guys are in for a few laughs for sure as I talk about butt pain, cycling gear and many other things. Oh, and why did I name it The Machine? Well, in fitness in general and endurance sports -especially triathlon- in particular, people talk about "the engine", which amounts to your ability to propel yourself forward whether it's swimming, running or cycling. Well, if I'm "the engine" and engines power machines, then I'm the engine and the bike is The Machine. OK, it's a bit dorky but I can't help it.

Philly Marathon Expo

OK, so the day before crushing every single PR I had done, I actually had to go pick up my bib and stuff at the Expo which was held at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

While not as big as, say Disney, it was certainly big enough, with plenty of vendors and a pretty large section dedicated to race merchandise which was pretty cool as well. I like the "flying shoe" logo of this race. I only bought a shirt for my wife and a shirt for me along with a mug and my first official 13.1 sticker (technically a magnet) and a pin. OK, so maybe I bought a few things. And the mug is now "my" mug. You know, the daily coffee mug.

The bib pick-up was very good and I did not have to wait in line at all. Just walked up to the table, got my number, then got my shirt and bag at the other. No fuzz. The race shirt was pretty cool too. It has the route in the back which kind of, sort of, looks like the race logo.

Race Shirt

I don't know if it was intended or by accident, but the bigger international brands like 2XU and Fitletic had a smaller presence while the local shops had pretty big booths with the exception of Gore-Tex which, being the main sponsor had a huge section right in the middle. Intentional or not, I thought it was cool to give the local shops more space. One of them had a sale on GU's that created a line out the door.

Along with the vendors, there was also a booth were you could drop your old running shoes for charity. I left three pairs there, including my very first pair of Beasties and the Girlies (end of an era). This was awesome because I'm often left with shoes that are otherwise in great condition but I just can't run in them anymore and I don't want to just throw them out. It seems like such a waste. Just to give you an example, I gave away three pairs and I was still left with the ones I had on at the Expo, the ones I'm running in right now and the pair of Beasties I ran the Disney Marathon in, which I'm way too sentimentally attached to to throw away. Clearly, more than I can handle. More Expos should have this.

Also, they had speakers and seminars throughout the day and wouldn't you know it? Olympic gold medalist Bill Rodgers was talking while I was there.

He was doing more of a Q & A with the crowd and joking around but it's not everyday you get to see a gold medalist. He did say one thing that struck me even though it's pretty obvious: "Marathon is a cold weather sport." How prophetic those words turned out to be.

Saving the best for last, I also got to meet Sarah who writes the blog Sparkly Runner. We had been e-mailing before the weekend hoping to meet up and sure enough we ended at the expo at the same time. Sarah had just gotten out of a leg cast a few weeks ago but her boyfriend was running the Half. I know how hard this was for her but she has been making great progress and I know she will be up and racing very soon.

We talked for a while, mostly about Disney racing (what else?) and her boyfriend Matthew gave me some pointers regarding the course. They are both awesome people. Hopefully I get to meet them again at a Disney race. Or any race. Or any time for that matter. lol

Just as I was leaving the Expo, I saw my friend Al who after picking up his stuff took me to lunch at Reading Terminal Market, an awesome place I will talk about in my next post.

And I'm Off!

What an adventure this has been...

Tomorrow, on my birthday of all days, I take a plane and travel to Philadelphia to run a Half Marathon. Injury, and training snafus have all conspired to make this particular training cycle the most challenging I have faced so far but hey, if everything simply came out perfect, would life be as entertaining?

Last Sunday, I did my last long run. A 10 miler where every step was misery thanks to the fact I was very sick. The congestion would not let me breathe and I felt like my face wanted to explode but I did it and was handsomely rewarded with a time that was below my expected time. This picked up my spirits for sure. If I could pull this off feeling terrible, there is a good chance I can run a decent Half right?

On Monday, I went to the doctor and explained my situation. He promptly prescribed a bag full of meds and a shot. Thankfully, I'm feeling a lot better. There is still some congestion and coughing but I'm trusting that if I keep taking all the stuff he gave me I'll be even better by race day.

I also received emails with final instructions and bib number. I'm in corral 7 which I would be very surprised if it wasn't the last one. I arrive in Philly pretty late on Friday (technically Saturday actually) then I pick up my bib on Saturday and race on Sunday morning. On Monday I'm back on a plane to Puerto Rico.

As usual, I will be reporting all my adventures through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and taking some pictures along the way to hopefully make my Flickr account a bit nicer. Also, you can track my progress during the race by going here and signing up to receive updates. You can look me up by first or last name (Frank Pizarro) or by bib number (33135) I have also set up runner tracking on my Twitter account so if you follow me there you will get the updates (I hope).

And that is it folks. Wish me luck, stay tuned to my social media channels and I'll see you all on the other side.

HA!!! I'm on the News!!!!

Can you believe this??!!

I've been wanting to share this for the past couple of days but decided to wait it out just in case. Didn't want to jinx it you know?

Last week, I got a message from a very nice lady named Sarah Richards and she was doing a story about runners who are overweight for Today.com which is the web site of the Today show on NBC. Well, we talked on the phone on Sunday and she asked me a lot of questions about how I started running and how hard it is and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Well the story was published today (on Today! Get it?) and you can read it here. http://www.today.com/health/i-felt-superman-plus-size-marathon-runners-defy-odds-1D80252070

So Sarah, if you are reading this, Thank you so much. Very cool.

The funny thing is that out of all the stuff we talked about, it never occurred to me that she would use the comment I made about feeling like Superman as the title. I was telling her that the first time I managed to run 5 miles I felt like Superman because for some reason that distance was like a big step for me because that's what runners always seem to say when asked how much did they run. "Oh, I run 5 miles every day." Anyway it made for a great title in my now-famous opinion.

So how are we gonna celebrate this? Well, duh! With a run! 5 miles of course.

By the way, Sarah Elizabeth Richards wrote a book titled Motherhood, Rescheduled about delayed parenthood which you might want to check out. Her web page is SarahElizabethRichards.com there you will find the entire scope of her work as author and journalist which is pretty extensive.