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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Another pre-race eve - Cherry Blossom 10 Mile

My BFs and I are heading up to DC tomorrow for the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile. I am debuting my new Team Tough Chik gear this weekend. For the race on Sunday, the Cherry Blossoms are scheduled to pop with a high in the low 70s. How awesome is that? The only problem is that I'm always cold and with a starting temperature in the mid 40s, this Tough Chik needs something on her arms.

Target to the rescue, and in Tough Chik colors of turquoise and purple. I did pull out a very dusty sewing machine to keep the ends from unraveling.

Not my finest work, but $2.50 plus some elbow grease and thread for color-coordinated warmth. Two thumbs up. And here's my flat mama ... all ready to go. Sorry the shoes clash so bad but the Connects in purple don't have the support I need for the 10 miles.

Now to figure out the goal. I really want to rock the Monument 10k next weekend as a finally healthy redemption race (I ran this race healthy for the first time out of three tries last year, but didn't push it wisely).

The options are:

1. Race it.
2. Run fast, but conservative.
3. Just have fun.

I'm leaning towards option 2. Any thoughts? I even painted my nails. Here's to a fun weekend!

 

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If you do what you are supposed to do ...

then you are able to run without knee pain. The plan called for 10 miles on Saturday, which I gladly deferred until today.

All the way around, a better run today than last week. I used the handy dandy cadence alarm on my way too complicated Garmin 610. If you need a watch with more bells and whistles than this watch, make sure you have your PhD first. But this watch keeps me on track. If I get sloppy with not enough steps per minute, then buzz ... signal to pick those feet up. Average cadence = 87 or 174 steps per minute.

The route was tricky with several turns downtown (one wrong turn), and a little tiring with all the waiting at stoplights. By the time we got to mile 8, L and I were both quiet and wanting to get this done. Speeding up for the last little bit helped ... and I felt good the rest of the day. Long run accomplished. And the new Brooks felt great.

And hopefully, this is what I'll be doing this time next year.

Courtesy of Run Disney.

Jill

 

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Got to keep on moving

I am so close to my first half, knee don't fail me now. After last week's cut short long run, I was happy for a fall back week. I skipped the recovery run to rest, ice, stretch, you know the drill. On Monday, I did all the exercises my strength coach gave me that I never did before. Shh, don't tell her. Lots of core work to keep my gluts engaged and not sloppy as the miles increase.

I did hit the treadmill for 3 miles on Tuesday, and all felt well (knocking on my wooden head). Aren't you jealous of this amazing fashion assemble I put together below. I sent my BRF a picture to make her jealous or happy she wasn't there to be embarrassed.

I finally got a happy phone call on Tuesday too to let me know my shoes I ordered 3 weeks ago were in. I hate wearing a size 12 because everything has to be ordered, and there was some mixup with my order and it didn't go through the first time. Good thing I am a shoe stalker for my local running store and kept calling to see where these babies were. I cannot believe I ordered Diva Pink, but considering the other options were awful looking, pink it is.

I have worn them for two 3 mile runs so far, and I love the Brooks PureFlow 2. I might even love them more than my PureConnects but since I haven't tried the second version of that shoe (I would love to try them if someone would send me a pair. Hint, hint), I will hold my opinion until I have some more miles on them.

Since my two running buds have conflicts with the long run on Saturday, we decided earlier in the week to wait until Sunday. Boy, I am glad for that call.

This was the radar for this morning. So I knocked out my recovery run a day early ... on the treadmill because I didn't want to go swimming. Actually, it wasn't that bad outside, I just wasn't in the mood to get wet after last week's snowy run. The win for the week was an average steps per minute of 178 for all three runs and this = no knee pain. Woot, woot!

I really should be sleeping because I have 10 on the schedule for tomorrow this morning. Fingers crossed my gluts stay strong. Nighty, nite.

Jill

 

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