Marathon Training - Week 12

The laziest blog post ever.

Yep, that's all I did last week to mark the halfway point of this adventure. I was recovering from being on vacation for a week (where I got minimal rest) and work was hell all week. I continue to follow the Run Less, Run Faster plan and some of these paces are tough. But this should make the marathon easier, right? Someone please say yes!

The highlights were a little painting and wine time with the mommas from Moms Run This Town.

It started out a little scary.

But turned out not so bad. And this is my view every morning going in to work.

Then, the week ended with a Rogue Run. We were supposed to run a local half that is co-sponsored by the marathon team, but I just wasn't feeling a run through farmland. After the Zooma debacle, I need a fantastic half and I didn't think this was going to be it. So one of my wonderful teammates created the Going Rogue run. About 40 of us ran our own little half around Richmond. We covered part of the marathon route and I got to run over a new bridge. And we even got a medal and certificate at the end. Greg is awesome.

And here's my running twin, except she's a lot faster. We even have the same shoes, and excellent taste in skirts.

I didn't race this run, but rather just let the miles roll by. We still have a long way until November 16th, so let's go drink a milkshake.

That's my crazy kid sucking down my peanut butter chocolate milkshake. It's a good thing he's cute.

 

Jilly Bean

ZOOMA Annapolis - Part 2

Or otherwise known as the bad and the ugly.

We were all smiles at the start even though we knew the hills and heat were ahead of us.

For some reason, I seem to attract Brooks fans. Maybe one of these days Brooks will pick me to spread their Brooks love instead of working my normal day job. Please, please, please!

Two of those four pair of Brooks belong to Lisa and her awesome husband. He cracked me up wearing his Princess Half Marathon shirt at another predominantly women's race. Lisa's blog is Lisa Runs for Cupcakes and she is a fellow Tough Chik, hence the matching outfits. It was great to meet her.

The Lululemon cheer station at the top of this hideous bridge was helpful with all their energy. I "borrowed" the picture below from Emma's blog. Check out the link a little later on. This bridge doesn't look too bad ... until you are running over it ... twice.

This quote by Eleanor Roosevelt was at the 8 mile marker. I think ... Things were starting to get a little hazy with the hills in the dang heat which I had all of three runs in before this day. All I could think of when I saw that quote was, "I feel like I'm running in hot water. Get this thing over." I finally found hubby after we crossed the bridge the second time (he was riding his bike) and he passed off some cold Nuun. The electrolyte drink on the course had artificial sweetener in it, which I can't drink. Boo!

And then it was done. After a lot of walk breaks. I would walk up the hills if they were in the shade, and try to run down or in the sun. I can tell you around mile 11 with a gentle incline, I had some serious self-doubt if I was going to finish this thing. My stomach started gurgling from the lack of heat acclimation. Thank goodness I was able to will it away. I kept saying "I got this." I really should have bought this shirt at the end.

I have no idea why we were smiling so big, but E said it so well. I'm going to paraphrase but it was something to the effect of how proud she was of herself because it was a mentally and physically race. And she was exactly right. We did it and lived to smile about it.

Muscle Milk did have this awesome shaded area with mats and foam rollers. But we missed out on the wine (we didn't bring our IDs and didn't want to stand in a line for them to check us), there were not enough massage tables, we never did see the yoga, and we got the bottom of the barrel for food (carrots and potato salad). No thank you after a hot race. I did like the necklace instead of the medal.

And to top it all off the course was a quarter mile short. See the arrow below and the little green part at the tip. There was no one to direct us to go that way. But this wasn't the worst part, because we ran with the 10k group, the leaders were mis-directed and were two miles short at the finish. Emma was one of these girls and I felt so bad for her. She was having an amazing race. Check out her story at A Mom Runs This Town.

I swear the hills were worse than this elevation looks, and they just never stopped. Even the finish was uphill.

So here are the stats. I have to say for all the walk breaks, I did okay. I was expecting closer to 2:15 when factoring in the heat.

Would I do this race again, probably not. Too many glitches on top of the hilly heat.

So, to end on a positive note. The good things: meeting lots of new and not so new friends; awesome support from the hubby; great friends to watch the kiddo for us so we could both go; and conquering a second half marathon this year with NO knee pain.

And the only thing missing from this breakfast was a mimosa.

 

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Zooma Annapolis - Part 1

Hubby and I headed North on Friday. Well we went South for a split second until I yelled out, "Hey, why are we going South?" Poor hubby was on autopilot. We made it to Annapolis without any trouble, and we had the great idea to drive the course before rush hour hit. Little did we know how nuts Annapolis is on Friday afternoon. Also, the prime comment from the hubs was, "Did a drunk guy lay out this town." Crazy side streets, narrow passages, and odd one ways. It was a little tense in the car trying to follow the crazy map and no Verizon reception.

Not sure about the crazy birds that were all over the sidewalks. The town is cute, but I can't say that I got to enjoy more than a small bit of it. We did make a stop at the Navy Campus Store to buy a present for our good friend who was watching the little monster guy.

I failed to take a single picture of the expo, but I did buy some really cute shirts. And caught up with some awesome Tough Chiks: Katye, Tonia, and Katie.

Hubby bought me the Wonder Woman bike jersey after the race. He is awesome.

I caught up with a Mom"s Run This Town buddy and we caught up with Emma. She has a picture of us at dinner at an awesome restaurant and the hideous bridge (foreboding music here). I highly recommend Osteria 177, and they have a $200 cocktail. Not that I will ever spend that kind of a money of a drink.

Then it was Flat Momma time, and wind down time to get ready for the early time ... In the heat.

Taken before we left because I'm OCD.

 

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Shamrock Race & Results

I missed posting this before now. Since the race, work commitments have been tough, the household caught the crud, we had a freak snow storm, and we still needed to figure out Spring Break plans. Oh, and I still needed to finish training for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and Monument 10k.

So, the morning started out early and cold, and I was glad to have packed extra clothes for layers. The temps ended up in the low 40s but the cloud cover and wind made it feel like mid 30s for the race. I have to tell you that it felt much colder than that while we were huddled for an extra 15 minutes waiting for the race to start. There was debris on the road and the police delayed the start. Just wish they heaters at the start.

My one regret of the race was that I didn't get a picture with the pace group leaders. Thanks to Mike, Sherri, and Tony for leading the way. They were awesome, even though I couldn't make the math work in my head at the end.

The first 3-4 miles flew by. The pace seemed easy and I stayed right with the 2:00 pacers. They were chatting it up with the group. No route sheets or watch checking. This was easy. I was heating up, but knew the wind would come when we turned around at the point. And did it hit. Luckily, I found a nice Scottish lad to chat a bit with and he kept me distracted when miles 7-8 hit. It was getting tougher, but over halfway there.

Right before we hit 10 miles, the pacers said we were even a little ahead, and this is when my brain failed me. I was right on target to hit a sub 2:00, but I couldn't figure out the time math to make it work. So I did what any smart person did, and I took off or tried to in front of the pacers. I did swing by a beer stop so I could say I did drink beer during the race.

My rookie mistake of the race was not knowing where the finish line was in relationship to the turn. And it was much further than I thought. I think that is when the race photographer caught my scowl on the boardwalk. I really was thinking when I saw how far we had left "You have got to be kidding me." It was cold, windy, I was tired, and the spectators were just standing and not cheering. I am thankful they were there because I know they were freezing. When I asked them for some noise, they did cheer out, and it helped. A LOT! Because I smiled across the finish line.

My first half and I beat my goal of a sub 2. And even a 8:20 for the last mile.

I loved seeing these two new stats on my Garmin page.

And I was very happy with these results. Not too bad for this crazy ITB prone injury girl.

There was lots of cool bling after the race. The blanket was very welcome as cold as it was.

We didn't stay too long in the tent after the race. Just long enough for a beer so we could get somewhere to see the basketball games.

Yes, I am shivering below.

But we did make a pitstop for real food and hot coffee. Thank you Pocahontas Pancake for hitting the spot.

All in all, my first half was a success. The knee was a little tweaky, but recovered very quickly. I think I will be signing up for another one soon.

And I will leave you with a cute sign that I saw a pregnant lady holding while waiting for her husband to finish. I will definitely agree with her on this one.

 

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The Shamrock Expo

This was my first expo outside of Richmond, and I was getting anxious about the race on Sunday. As I was picking up K from the airport at 2 and I was extremely paranoid about missing bib pickup, so I headed out early to the expo. I walked right up ... no lines = score. There was an awesome rainbow with a pot of gold for photo ops, but no one was around for me to cheese it up. Definitely next time.

The race swag was a drawstring bag in green of course and a short sleeve tech shirt which I forgot to take a pic of yet. The vendor section seemed to get more crowded by the minute ... and I couldn't find what I was looking for. I was on the hunt for a long sleeve, non-tech shirt that showed my love of running. Nothing said "buy me." I was disappointed that most of the women's clothing options from the race booth were down to XS. Boo!

I also was looking for a cool 13.1 sticker, but nothing struck me, and I forgot to buy a bead for my bracelet. I was not feeling the luck at the expo. On my way out, I spotted this tough piece of green that my boys would love.

I was starving and had a bit of time before heading to the airport, so Subway it was for lunch. Would had loved to have something tastier, but wanted to keep a normal routine for the pre-race.

We were lucky that K made her connection after a delay in her first flight, so we did have time to swing back by the expo for her. I did buy a pair of Snuggbuds based on another friend's recommendations. The cord is cloth so less likely to tangle and they don't fall out, or so the claim. I haven't had time to check yet, but I will let you know the verdict.

Then we were off to find somewhere to watch basketball. We needed two screens so we could watch UNC and VCU play at the same time. This was the lovely site we saw on the way. I hope there was a pub crawl going on to help explain this crazy site.

We couldn't hear the games, but did find a spot to watch and carbo-load (via beer) and cheer both teams on to victory.

We finally made it to our room and started prepping for the 5:20 wake-up call. Shamrock Half next up!

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Quick Shamrock Tail

This weekend was not quite what we excited temperature wise. The high today was 40 with a feels like 32-34 for most of the race and windy.

But the real thing that matters is that I finished my first half marathon and broke two hours thanks to smart training and a flat and fast course. There are many other people and things to thank, but I will get to those in another post.

So, for now, a couple quick pics.

 

Official time was 1:58:21.

After an early wake-up, 13.1 miles, lots of other walking, cheering two basketball teams to a loss, room exchange debacle at the hotel, finally a shower, and dinner, this girl is ready for bed at 9:30.

Glad I'm not working until 5 pm tomorrow.

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