3M Half Marathon 2012

Well, obviously I haven’t been good about updating my blog on a regular basis, but this morning was the 3M Half Marathon and I always like to do a race report on here.

Race morning was cold (in the 30s) but we got lucky and did not have the 20mph winds that we had yesterday. I debated about what to wear as usually when the temps are in the 40s I wear shorts and a long sleeved tech top over a sports tank so I can shed the long sleeve later if I get warm. With feel-like temps in the low 30s at the start and barely getting to 40 by the time I expected to finish I was wishy washy. I dressed in shorts to begin with but took the tights with me.

I got to the race site in plenty of time and sat in the car for a while to stay warm. I did start to get a little cold with the car turned off and decided in the end to put the tights on. I didn’t think I’d hit a PR today anyway, so I figured if I got a little warm toward the end of the race that would be ok.

The race start was at 6:45am so at 6:15 I left the car to drop my clothes bag for after the race and to get in line for the port-a-potty. What I didn’t expect was a 20 minute wait just to drop my bag off. People were waiting until they got to the front of the line to ditch their warm clothes and they didn’t even have the tag on their bag. Come on people. Finally they got some more help back there, I dropped my bag and found the shortest line I could find for the port-a-potty. It took a little time to get to the front, but I got in and out and to the start line with just a few minutes to spare.

I was glad to finally be moving. I was shivering before the start. It didn’t take long to feel comfortable though. The first few miles were actually kind of a blur. I think I was just glad to be moving. At mile one I went to hit the split button and apparently hit the stop button. Luckily I noted the time and then a short time later looked at the watch again and realized what I had done. I hit start again and kept moving.

Mile1: 9:40
Mile2: who knows?

I hit the split button again at mile 2 and was back on track.

Mile 3: 9:03
Mile 4: 9:16

At this point I’m comfortable temperature wise and kind of wish I had just stuck with the shorts. I started looking around at people and noticed a lot of people had ditched their jackets at this point. I also notice a male with a tramp stamp. Yep, that’s right. Kind of scary, but whatever floats your boat. I also notice a lady running in full makeup. Her checks were bright pink and I promise it was not from the cold or from the effort. She had full eye shadow and mascara on as well. Wow. Should have noticed her number so I could look up her time. I wear make-up every day, but not for races. I sweat too much. People watching in a race is very interesting.

Mile 5: 9:15
Mile 6: 9:17

At this point we are approaching the relay exchange point and for a brief moment I wish I had found someone to do the relay with me and I’d be done. But I’m actually feeling pretty good and wonder how I will end up. Of course, I won’t know at the end if a PR is close or not because of the mess up with the watch earlier so I just don’t worry about it.

Mile 7: 9:11
Mile 8: 9:17

I knew from a facebook post that a friend of mine from high school would be around mile 8 or 9 so I started looking for him during this time and actually found him. I gave him a wave and kept going.

Mile 9: 9:18

The course is relatively flat with a negative elevation gain overall, but there was a gradual incline at this point and it slowed me down just a bit. I have exercise induced asthma that is unfortunately triggered by cold, humidity, or hills. Going up the incline I could feel it a little bit. Oh well.

Mile 10: 9:33
Mile 11: 9:32

Ok, it’s back to flat or downhill now and I know I’m close to the end.

Mile 12: 9:18
Mile 13: 9:50

I guess I got a little tired that last mile and of course any race that ends in downtown has some kind of hill at the end. It wasn’t a big one, but it must of got me. I turned the corner and headed to the finish line.

Last .1: 1:07.

I crossed the finish line, got my medal and went looking for the bag claim so I could put on my sweatshirt. I was already getting cold because of the sweat. I didn’t find the bag claim right away, but I found the line for the breakfast tacos, so I got in line. I’m not passing that up! Once I had my taco I went to find the info tent and ask where the clothes were. Finally found it and no one was monitoring the area. Anyone could have walked away with anyone’s bag. I put an old pair of sweats in my bag so it wasn’t a big deal for me, but I wasn’t impressed with how that was handled. I ran into some old Team in Training teammates and then headed for the shuttle bus to get back to the start. I was freezing again and just wanted to get warm.

Overall, it was a good race. I’m pretty sure I could have gone faster on the level of training I’m at right now, but I’m happy with my 2:02:46 finish. I think somewhere around 6,000 folks registered and I was 2326 overall. My 10K time was 57:39 so I definitely slowed down a little the last half, but overall I ran a fairly consistent race.

Happy New Year!

I haven't updated in a while although I will admit there have been times I've had thoughts about posts I needed to do. So, with the new year, I thought I'd post a bunch of random thoughts. Hopefully my year won't be so random.

2011 In Review

In looking at my workout logs for 2011, I have done the following:
Biked 748.02 miles in 7 hours, 23 minutes and 11 seconds
Run 1185.3 miles in 211 hours,12 minutes and 42 seconds
Swam 30,334.03 yards in 11 hours, 23 minutes and 11 seconds
Strength Training for 9 hours 20 minutes
Adventure Racing for 4 hours
Hiking for 1 hour 25 minutes
Massage for 5 hours 30 minutes (clearly not enough!)
P90X for 24 hours 15 minutes
Paddle board for 1 hour
Race Volunteering for 9 hours
Snorkeling for 45 minutes
Stretching for 30 minutes (ok,I stretched more but didn't log it)
Surfing for 1 hour 45 minutes
Walking for 6 hours 18 minutes and 21 seconds
Yard Work for 3 hours
Yoga for 26 hours 15 minutes

Clearly my focus of the year was on running. In fact, my run total for the year was about 100 miles more than the year before when I did IMFL. It will be interesting to see where my numbers fall this year in training for IMAZ. The swim and bike miles will definitely be more than 2011, but ideally they will also be more than 2010. I still need to finalize my race schedule for this year and determine what I need to do to make sure I am where I want to be in November.


Houston Marathon 2013

A few weeks ago we were in Houston for a volleyball tournament and my Aunt came by to watch Madison play. While there, she was saying that she wants to do the Houston marathon in 2013 and she wants me to do it with her. The Houston marathon was her first (and I believe only) marathon. The 2013 marathon will be 25 years since she did Houston and she'd like to run it. The only problem is that Houston has gone to a lottery system for entry. I'm more than willing to run it with her. We just need to figure out how to get both of us in.


Hectic Schedules

Speaking of volleyball, Madison's volleyball schedule this spring is a little more intense than it has been the past 2 years. Combine that with Dalton's soccer (which will also be more intense) and Yikes! It will be hard to fit my training in, especially the cycling, so I need to figure out a way to do it. Maybe I'll be taking my bike and trainer to some of the tournaments.


More Outside Workouts

Speaking of cycling. One thing that went through my mind after Ironman Florida was that I would have liked to have done more of my cycling workouts outside. Due to time contstraints, safety, and weather, I did a lot of the weekly workouts on the trainer. The long rides were generally outside, but not the shorter workouts. I'd like to change that this year. AND, I really need to start ramping up the cycling now. December was a good start, but I need to get outside and do some longer rides when I have the chance.


Swimming

I've also been back in the pool a little bit in December. I don't feel like I've lost a lot of fitness there, but I do still feel like I have a lot of room to improve. I'd really like to get faster so that I can get out of the cold water in Arizona as fast as I can. I am considering taking a semi-private lesson with a local pro.


Getting Organized

Another thing I really want to do this year is get more organized and stay that way. I spent a couple of days of my time off over Christmas cleaning and organizing. I went through the filing cabinet in the office and pulled old bills (some from 2009). I organized stacks by years and shredded what could be shredded (LOTS). I am finally going to bite the bullet and get organized with paying bills online and am really wanting to scan documents as well. The less paper I have in my house the better in my opinion.

I'm also trying to minimalize somewhat. I've read a couple of books on minimalist living. I don't think I'm one that can take that to extreme (by only having two towels per family member for example), but I do believe that I keep too much stuff and can stand to get rid of some of it. I've already got a few stacks of clothes and stuff. Some I am donating to a friend for a garage sale, some we took to Goodwill and the rest I am going to try to sell on Craig's List or eBay. I'm also trying to figure out the best way to sell some of my books that I know I will not read again. If anyone has suggestions, let me know.


Better Eating

As always, I would also like to try to eat healthier this year. I already eat pretty healthy since I am a vegetarian, but I still have my downfalls. I try not to eat out at lunch very much, but sometimes a lack of preparation means eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a couple of times a week. While not entirely bad, it gets old. I need to find some good recipes that will provide good, healthy leftovers.

Well, those are some of my random thoughts for now. I will try to post a little bit more in the coming year to keep you informed about my training and how I'm doing with staying organized.

Happy New Year!

Another Ironman Is In My Future

A while back a friend of mine emailed me and said she'd love to do a destination event with me soon. I thought it would be fun and we started talking about what race we could do. She had also been thinking of doing an Ironman and then we found out a large group of folks we know from here were planning on signing up for Ironman Arizona 2012.....and so the wheels started turning.

We decided that we would do IMAZ 2012 together and began to make plans. The first step in the process was making plans to go out to IMAZ this year to volunteer and guarantee we would have a spot.

On November 19th, that process began as weheaded out to Tempe. Once in Tempe, I headed over to the pro panel at the race site. Another friend of mine was racing this year. She is in the Army and was racing as part of the Team Red, White and Blue. This group of folks is raising awareness and raising money to help wounded veterans. One of the pros is an ambassador of Team RWB and would be speaking at the pro panel. I went to meet my friend there and listen to the expert advice of the pros. It was actually kind of interesting as many of the pros said that during the off season they would be enjoying their choice of acoholic beverage and some chocolate. Now that's my kind of athlete.

After checking out the race site (swim course, transition area, etc), it was time to grab a quick bite to eat. There was also an author there who wrote a book called You Are An Ironman. The book is about 6 average age groupers and their journey to Ironman Arizona 2009. The author was there as were several of the folks he wrote about. I got the book and then listened to their Q&A session and then got some autographs as well. There was also a gathering of triathletes at one of the big triathlon stores in town. Lots of the pros were hanging around there and I got a couple more autographs. After that it was time to settle in, relax, and enjoy dinner.

Saturday morning it was time to get up fairly early because I wanted to run part of the run course. I got in about three miles before needing to head to the volunteer meeting to meet the captains for our aid station on Sunday. After that it was time to grab some lunch and then head to a lunch gathering for Team RWB, where I got a shirt so that I could support them during the race. I talked to my friend about possibly joining Team RWB and raising money for them next year. I wished the races good luck and we headed on our way.

Sunday was a long day. We were up early and at the race start to watch the swim begin. We hung around until we saw Brittany come out of the water and then grabbed some breakfast before heading to the run aid station where we were volunteering. We would be helping to set up the aid station and then stay for a little bit of the next shift to hand out nutrition to the athletes as they came through. The good thing about being there so early was that we would see the pros as they came through on their run. It was really neat to see that first pro coming down the path. I got to hand water to several of the pros and got some good pics as well. My friend Selene enjoyed volunteering as well, and her sister and future brother-in-law even jumped in to help. It was lots of fun, but can be very tiring, especially as the day got warmer.

After volunteering at the shift it was time to grab some food and do a little relaxing since we had plans to be at the finish line until midnight. We opted for a late dinner and then headed to the finish line for the last couple of hours. The finish line at that time of the evening is a pretty fun, festive, emotional and inspiring time. I wanted to Selene to see that and get excited about signing up the next day. The last official finisher came through with about 2 seconds to spare in the 17 hour time limit. Wow!

Monday morning it was up early again to head back down to the race area to get in line for to sign up. Volunteers get to sign up first and we were about 30-40 people back in line. It's a good thing we got there early because that line continued to grow and grow and grow. Registration opened a little early and before we knew it, we were standing in front of the volunteer giving them our information. We got the registration done and took our picture with our little piece of paper confirming our entry for next year.

After I registered for Florida, I walked out of the tent and thought to myself "what did I just do". I was excited and nervous and unsure of what the year ahead of me had in store for me. This time, I didn't really feel that way. It's weird in a way. I'm not really nervous about doing an Ironman. I know what kind of training I will have to do and I know what it takes to get it done. The thing that makes me most nervous is the temperature of Tempe Town Lake where the swim will take place. This year the temperature was 61 degrees. Even with a full wetsuit, I know that I will be freezing cold in that. Somehow in the next year I need to figure out how to get use to being in cold water for an hour to hour and a half.

For now, I'm still working out on my own schedule based on what I feel like doing. I do have plans to get back in the pool at least once a week and I've been doing trainer rides more frequently as well. I need to sit down and look at my race schedule for next year and see what I can fit in between the kids' volleyball and soccer tournaments. Specific Ironman training won't begin again until the end of April, but you can be sure I will be building that base before then.

It should be a fun year........

Susan G Komen Race For The Cure 5k

Just like every year (except 2010 when it conflicted with Ironman Florida), I signed up to do the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. I wasn't really trained to "race" it this year so I knew I wouldn't get a PR, but I was somewhat surprised at the results.

The race use to be downtown and then moved north for a few years. This year it moved back downtown. In looking at the map, I guessed that the first half would be fairly fast with a slight downhill and then the last half would be slower with a more uphill course. I forgot how hilly downtown is and was wrong. The first half of the course has more uphill than I thought.

It turns out I probably started out too fast for the hills, but I hung in there and got it done.

Mile 1: 8:32
Mile 2: 8:57
Mile 3: 9:08
last .1: 53:65 seconds

My final time was 27:28 for an overall pace of 8:48. I ended up 376 out of 1289 who were chip timed that day, 137/764 females and 13/85 in my age group.

It was a great day and it felt good to be racing again.

The 2011 Chicago Marathon

Race morning I woke up at 5:00am. I probably could have slept later with how close I was to the start, but I would rather be early than rushed. I had taken two different outfits as possible race outfits - a cute pink one with a running skirt and the standard shorts/tank that I had worn for most of my long runs. Since I had only worn the skirt for a 12 miler, I made a quick race morning decision to skip the cuteness and go for tried and true.

I got dressed, ate my breakfast and checked the temps. The weather was warmer than I had hoped for and I knew I'd be fine once I got going, but the decision was whether to start with arm warmers or not. I had a trash bag with me to use for warmth before the race, so I decided not to mess with arm warmers. I knew I would shed them fast and didn't want to have to carry them for most of the race. I grabbed a water, grabbed my trash bag and headed to the race start.

The morning was beautiful and seeing the sun rise over the city was a sight to see. I have to admit that I stole a few of the pics below from the facebook album of a friend of mine who also did the race. Thanks JCP.





I found the port a potties, did my business and hung out for a bit before enterring the coral. About 30 minutes before the race start I enterred the coral and found a vacant spot on the curb to hang out.






Finally it was time for the national anthem and then we were off. With over 35,000 runners, it took me over 10 minutes to get to the start line. I shed the trash bag just before crossing the start. At first I was a little bit chilled, but very shortly we went under a bridge that seemed more like a tunnel and I was extremely glad I had decided to leave the arm warmers in the room. It was muggy and warm through that bridge and I knew from there on I would not be cold again.

I hit mile 1 and saw a 9:54. I was happy with that. I figured it might be a tad fast overall, but it was slower than my first mile usually is. I usually get sucked in with all the excitement and have to slow my pace down. The crowd here was good for me in that it helped hold me back.

I was able to hold a consistent pace for over half of the race.
Mile 2: 9:58
Mile 3: 9:51
Mile 4: 9:27
Mile 5: 9:30
Mile 6: 9:49
Mile 7: 9:19
Mile 8: 9:45
Mile 9: 9:44
Mile 10: 9:44
Mile 11: 9:46
Mile 12: 9:50







From about mile 10 I felt like I kind of had to pee, but not bad. I had been on the lookout for some open port-a-potties because I was not going to stand in line. Finally somewhere between 12 and 13 I saw an open one, darted off course, did my thing and ran back out.

Mile 13: 10:39

I settled back into my pace and continued on.


Mile 14: 9:47
Mile 15: 9:51




At this point it started warming up and I could tell I was slowing just a bit.

Mile 16: 10:02
Mile 17: 10:06
Mile 18: 10:20
Mile 19: 10:32







Somewhere around here I began thinking about all my other marathons. This was my 12th one and in all the previous ones, there was a point where I stopped to walk at least a little bit. In the Disney marathon one year I made it to mile 22 before I walked. I hadn't walked to this point yet and decided I would try to get further than I did at Disney at least. I did allow myself to slow the pace just a little because in reality, my dream was to not walk at all today.

Mile 20: 10:44
Mile 21: 10:40
Mile 22: 10:53
Mile 23: 11:19




I began to think at this point of the post I would put on facebook about not walking one single step. I knew I couldn't post that if I walked, so that was motivation. Whatever works, right? Besides, I only had 3 more miles to go. I knew at this point I'd get a PR, but the question was by how much. I calculated that if I ran 11 minute miles I only had a little over 33 minutes left to run. Surely I could do it.

Mile 24: 11:04

Now only 2 miles to go. Piece of cake.

Mile 25: 10:54




DO NOT WALK. I AM SO CLOSE.

Mile 26: 10:32

The last little bit of the marathon takes you up over a bridge before you turn to the finish. It's not steep by any means but at mile 26 of a marathon it sure feels like it. I plowed up that thing anyway.




The last .2 were done in 2:16.

When I saw the finish line I picked up speed. I had made it. All 26.2 miles without one single step of walking. And a brand new PR of 4:26:18!







I was soooo happy! I got a mylar blanket just in case I would get cold, I got my medal and then I stretched out my legs and lower back. I exited the coral and found a curb to sit on so I could call the family and let them know I was done. After sitting there and drinking my coke for a while I made my way back to the room for a nice shower. Then I put on my compression sleeves and headed to Niketown for some well deserved finisher gear.

I have to say that Chicago is one of the most well supported races I've ever done. The crowds were amazing throughout the whole course. And since it was hotter than expected, most of the locals had their water hoses out and were cooling us off as we ran past. For as big of a race as it is, it was very well run. I'm definitely glad I did this one and can now mark another state off my list.

Chicago Pre Marathon

Ahhh, after training through the Texas heat, the time finally came for me to head to Chicago. After checking the forecast, it looked like I might get some cooler weather in Chicago. So I packed some long sleeved shirts and jeans. At the last minute I threw in a short sleeved shirt and some flip flops and I would be glad later that I did. After leaving work on Thursday, I headed to the airport for my flight to Chicago.

Friday morning I woke up to nice 60 degree weather and headed over to the Lake Shore path for a short 3 mile run. It felt great. After the run I showered, grabbed some breakfast and headed out for a fun-filled day of sight seeing. I had purchased a ticket for a hop-on/hop-off bus tour. I caught the bus and headed to the upper deck for some great views. The tour was pretty interesting and I learned a little history about Chicago. And I was glad I had a short sleeve shirt and flip flops because it got warm!






I didn't get off the bus until I was pretty far north. From there, I made my way to Wrigley Field for my 2pm tour. Let me just say that the tour was one of the highlights of my trip. I'd love to go back and go to an actual game there. We got to see the press box and the locker rooms as well as sit in the dugout. Pretty awesome!














After a little souveneir shopping, I made my way back to the bus. Before getting on, however, I had to hit the Hersey store and get me some dark chocolate for my "recovery" after the marathon.




I stayed on the bus until I got to the Sears Tower (or Willis Tower as it is now called). One of my friends had said the view at Sunset was nice to see and I timed it pretty perfectly. I even stepped out on the ledge 103 floors above the ground and looked straight down through the pexiglass.













After this I was exhausted and headed back to the room to rest.


Saturday morning I headed over the the Lake Shore path for another short run. Let me just say that at this time of the year, Chicago was an awesome place for a run. The path by the lake runs about 20 miles north and south. Lots of joggers and cyclists are out on the path and I felt very safe.

After showering and breakfast, I headed to the expo where I would run into a friend from home and meet another friend who now lives in Chicago. I also discovered that there would be an autograph signing by Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach. For those of you who don't recognize those names, they are women from the US Woman's soccer team and my son is a huge fan of Alex Morgan. I knew I had to get an autograph and picture, so I hovered. I made sure that when they opened that line I was second to get in it!












Mission accomplished.

After getting the autographs, Tanya and I made our way north of the city and ate lunch at The Corner Bakery. Then I headed to Niketown before making my way back. I found me some pasta for an early dinner and then headed to the room to watch some football for the evening and to relax before race day.

Training for the Chicago Marathon in the Texas Heat

After doing Ironman Florida last year, I decided to do "fun" stuff this year. And I have. I've done adventure races and shorter races, but I did decide to do the Chicago Marathon and add another state to my list of states in which I've run a marathon. And after seeing what my body could handle while IM training, I decided to go with a high mileage plan for the marathon. It all seemed great until the great heat wave of the summer hit.

I think this year we hit 100 degrees earlier in the year than we normally do and it hasn't let up since then. We are well over 50 days of 100 degree temps or more. In July, there were only 2 days of not reaching 100 and both of those days we hit 99 degrees. This lead us to have the hottest July ever on record. I think the lowest high temp last week was 104. The heat is not welcome and it's making my higher mileage marathon training program seem brutal.

My legs are handling the miles just fine and my cardio is doing well, but the heat is just killing me. A lot of my runs during the week are 8-12 miles. This usually takes me about an hour and twenty minutes to two hours to do these distances. But, when it's still 100 degrees at 8:00pm, it makes things hard.

During the week I get up early anyway to go into work early. I would have to start running at 3:30 or 4:00am to get the runs done before getting ready for work. Sorry, but that is not happening for several reasons, one of which is safety for me. As a female, I don't feel comfortable running alone before about 5am. Therefore, all my weekday runs have to be done after work. When I get home from work it's 100+, so I wait until about 8pm to head out. That brings up the "should I eat dinner or not" question. If I eat dinner at 5:00 or 6:00, then I'm still full when I run, but if I don't eat early, then I'm eating dinner at 10pm and going directly to bed. The treadmill is always an option, but we all know how much fun it is to do longer runs on the treadmill. And so I usually head out about 7 and end up walking more than I like to admit.

The weekends are a little different, but they bring their own issues. For instance, this morning when I started my run at 5:30am, the "feels like" temperature was already 85 degrees. Compared to 105, that's a cool front, but the humidity is a lot higher in the mornings. By the end of my first mile, I was already dripping with sweat. I can run for longer periods of time without walking when I start early, but I am totally soaked in sweat after 30-45 minutes and then my socks get wet and I get lovely blisters. And that's without going through any sprinklers.

So, I've continued my runs and getting my miles in, but they haven't all been pretty. There is a lot more walking going on than I like, but I can only hope that come Chicago all this training in the heat will pay off. I'm hoping Chicago will be cooler in October (and not have a really hot year like a couple of year's ago when they stopped the marathon) and that my body will be ready to go come race day.