#megsmiles

Horrible things happen every day in this world, that I know.  I try not to watch the news too frequently, but of course things come up on my Facebook news feed.  It's impossible to escape everything.  Some of the things I read about hit me harder than others.  The Sandy Hook shootings were like that last year.  I couldn't stop thinking about the children, all of whom were approximately the same ages of my Charlotte.  As a teacher, I constantly asked myself what I would do if a gunman came in my classroom.  I found myself crying at the drop of a hat when I would think about the shootings, even months later.

Four days ago, Meg Menzies was hit by a drunk driver while running, dying as a result of her injuries.   

Because I follow so many running pages on Facebook, the story of the tragedy was all over my news feed.  I quickly learned more about Meg... she was a mother... three young children... 34 years old... training for the Boston Marathon.  The more I read, the more Meg's story affected me.  She is so similar to me.   No, I am in no way training for Boston, but both being young moms who run... that right there, it was enough.  In my head, I kept thinking, "What if it had been me?"  I could picture her children when they found out that their mommy wasn't coming home.  Their faces were replaced by my own babies' faces, and of course my heart broke. 

Across the running community, people are running in honor of Meg tomorrow.  I typically rest on Saturdays, but I really wanted to run tomorrow.  Unfortunately, it's probably not going to happen with our schedules.   Instead, I decided to dedicate my 5 miles today to Meg.  I have ran a few Fridays before work by myself, getting up at 4:45 AM and setting out for either a tempo run or a hard progressive run in my neighborhood.  It's the toughest day of the week for me.  I'm tired from a long work week.  I really don't like running alone anymore.  I am afraid of tempo runs because they're so hard.  Today was no exception.  I just didn't want to get up and run.  But today, I wasn't running for myself. I was running for Meg.  Each and every step, she was in my mind, in my heart.  I pushed each mile a little harder, and at the end of my final mile (which was sub-8:00, my 5K race pace), I felt my throat swell with impending tears.  As I walked down my street cooling down, looking up at the moonlight, I spoke aloud to Meg, telling her how sorry I was for what had happened.  Meg, those miles were for you.  You will not be forgotten. 

Oh, baby, it's COLD outside!

The majority of the United States has been hit by something called an polar vortex.  I don't know weather terms... what I do know is that it's frigid outside.  Cold enough that school has been canceled for the past two days.   And, needless to say, cold enough that *this* runner has not ran outside for a few days.

 

Honestly, it takes a lot for me to stay in.  On Christmas Eve, my friend Jeanne-Marie and I ran 10.5 miles in temperatures that had a "real feel" of -2 degrees. It was cold, that's for sure... but we made it through unscathed.  However, yesterday the temperature with the wind chill was down to -42 degrees.  Um, NO THANK YOU VERY MUCH!  That's too cold even for this bad@ss mother runner.

Thankfully, I have a membership to a nearby gym, Fitness 19. I joined last winter, when I was much less hardcore about running outside and in the dark. I did most of my runs on the treadmill at the gym until it got warm (and light) outside.  Let's make this clear: I am not a big fan of the treadmill. I don't hate it with a passion like some people, but I'd much rather run outside.  I've found ways to make it tolerable, including running intervals (e.g. 3 minutes hard alternating with 2 minutes easy, repeated x times) and running progressive-style runs (increasing the speed every so often).  

I came down with a 24-hour stomach bug (given to me so graciously by my 3 year old son) late Saturday night, and sadly that sidelined me for my planned 10-mile run with my awesome running buddy Jen.  I was so upset... I really look forward to our Sunday long runs.  Jen is awesome and we talk the entire time.  She is my Claire (read this awesome article if you have time to understand this metaphor).  Anyway, there was no way I could run... except for to the toilet every 15 minutes :(  So I took it easy and was grateful to feel back to 100% yesterday morning.  Unfortunately, not only did I miss my planned run, but I also missed the final day of temperatures and wind chills above zero. So yesterday, when I was feeling better, I went to the gym to gut out 10 miles on the treadmill.  Yikes!  My PR for distance on the 'mill was only 5 miles, so I wasn't sure how 10 would go.  The first 5 flew by.  I was listening to an interesting podcast from Another Mother Runner, and it was like we were just running along and I was listening to them chat.  Not quite as fun as chatting it up with Jen, but definitely better than nothing. However, after the podcast ended, I turned on my music.  I downloaded a new playlist and it was good, but two annoying things happened during the final 5 miles.  One: the treadmill stopped.  They time out after 1 hour.  Ugh!  So I had to restart it and that was just really... well, annoying. And two: I started to feel my skin chafing on my inner thigh. Ouch!  So I just started increasing the speed so I could be done with it.  Today I'm no worse for the wear, except for two sore pinky toes (first time for that).  And I do feel pretty bad@ss for running for over 1.5 hours on the treadmill! 

 

I am excited to get back outside tomorrow with my crazy 4:30 AM running friends!  Okay, maybe "excited" isn't the best word for how I feel.  It's going to be difficult to pull myself out of bed, and it's still going to be around 0 degrees for the windchill.  I am just happy that it won't be on the treadmill!

New Year's resolutions--they're the thing to do!

Happy New Year's!  My poor, neglected blog... what's a working mom to do?  I really do want to try to blog more frequently this year.   A good goal would be 3-4 times/month, I think. 

Goals... that brings me to the purpose of tonight's blog, which is New Year's resolutions.  I have always loved writing resolutions.  I have done them for as long as I can remember.  I even have my diary from age 9 with my New Year's resolutions in it!  I typically write several, so that I can: a) hit all facets of my life, and b) at least achieve a few of them!





I typically like to revisit my previous year's resolutions on New Year's Day.  Sadly, our computer died this past summer and along with it, my resolutions (which were saved on the hard drive).  I remember my only two running resolutions, though: run my first half-marathon, and run at least 600 miles for the year.  Check, and check!  I am super proud of how I did this year during my first full year as a runner.  2 5K's, 1 4-miler, 1 quarter-marathon, and 3 half-marathons.  Not too shabby!  Oh, and 714.42 miles for 2013.  

So, here we go with my resolutions for 2014..  Let's start with running, since that's the point of this blog. 

1. I want to hit 1000 miles for the year.  I totally think this is doable, as I ran 101 miles for the month of December, and 1000 is averaging around 83 miles/month.   I have some long runs planned in the next few months, so I know I can make it to 1000.



 
2. I want to PR at every race distance, from 5K to half marathon.  So that's a 5K, a 4-miler, a 10K (or quarter marathon, basically the same thing), and a half. 

3. I want to run in my first full marathon. I still cannot believe I am typing that.  Actually, to make it even more believable, last night I signed up for it!  April 27, I will be running 26.2 miles in Toledo at the Glass City Marathon (advertised as "fast and flat").  This is why I will be doing those longer runs in the coming months... gotta get ready to run far!

I'll share just a few of my non-running resolutions as well, just to stay accountable.  I have a lot of them... here are just a few:

1. Monthly date nights with my hubby.  He is far too neglected, and I need to work on that.  

2. Pay off our van by December 2014.  This will mean a strict budget this year, but we've done it before (we became debt-free with the exception of our home in November 2012, paying off over $30,000 in debt in under two years!). 

3. Figure out a system to organize my counter-tops.  My friend Jamie calls people like us "dumpers"... things naturally get "dumped" on flat surfaces.  I confess to being a perpetual dumper. I want to determine a way to get things in their places.  School papers for the kids, coupons, miscellaneous stuff... ideas are welcome :)




 This is not my personal counter top... but it isn't far from reality!


Bring it on, 2014!

Hello, blog, it's been awhile... Race Recap!

As I have said, working + mothering + running just doesn't allow for blogging, unfortunately. Wish I could update this more!  Recap: the last time I wrote, I had just DNF'ed ("did not finish") the Run Like a Girl half marathon on October 5.  Since then, I have had a complete work-up with a cardiologist, including another EKG, an echocardiogram, and wearing a Holter monitor for 48 hours.  All of that amounted to.... nada.  I am as fit as a fiddle.  In other words, we probably will never know exactly why I collapsed at mile 11 of the race.  The best that anyone can gather is that it was a combination of things... perhaps a virus, perhaps dehydration, perhaps low blood sugar.  The bottom line is that I am allowed to run, and that makes me happy!

On to the present.  Prior to running in the half marathon, I had registered for an awesome 4-mile race at my alma mater, Ohio State, which is being held today.   However, after the half, all I could think about was finding another half to run in ASAP.  I smartly chose to NOT run in the Columbus Half Marathon, which was 2 weeks after my race. I really don't think I was ready to run in another race at that point.  I worked on getting my miles back up again, and found a race in nearby Granville, the Fall into Winter 13.1.  I wasn't sure about this race at first.  Granville is notoriously hilly (and we all know how I feel about hills!).  However, two weeks ago a friend and I went out there and ran 12 miles on the trail where the race would take place, and realized it was on an old railroad line.  Out-and-back, very slight incline on the way out, and then very slight decline on the way back.  Gorgeous scenery, farms and woods with fall foliage abound... what wasn't there to love?  Oh and did I mention that it was only $40 to register?  Cha-ching!  I signed up after our training run, and was ready to roll yesterday.

The strangest part about this race was the start time: 2:00 PM.  I have ran a race at 6 PM, and many races at 7:00 or 8:00 AM.  But 2 PM is just... weird.  I had no clue how to eat the day of the race, and of course had the kids to take care of all morning (Joe was in Cincinnati with Joey at a flag football tournament all day).  I ended up having my favorite breakfast (2 eggs scrambled + 2 pieces of toast), and then an early lunch of PB&J and a banana.  In retrospect, I could have had a bit more to eat, but I was worried that might come back to haunt me, so I didn't. 

I ran the race with two friends, Adele and Jeanne-Marie.  Adele is the friend who ran the training run out in Granville with me two weeks ago.  Her son and Joey are in school together, and we became friends a couple of months ago when our boys both joined the same select soccer team.  She's a pro--has ran in halfs, fulls, and even a half-Ironman.  Jeanne-Marie is in one of my running Facebook groups.  We've ran a couple of times together.  Like me, she's a relative newbie to racing, but she ran her first half in Columbus a few weeks ago and went 1:58, so she's definitely amazing!  My race plan was to run with my friends, but to stick with my own happy pace.  Goal #1 was NO miles under 9:00 for the first five miles.  I feel that this was one problem at Run Like a Girl... I had planned on staying between 9:00-9:15 for the first five miles, but I started out at 8:57 and from there couldn't slow down.  It sapped all of my energy.  Jeanne-Marie can take things out strong, so I let her know that I was going to be sticking at my 9:00+ for awhile. 

It was a perfect race afternoon on paper... 60 degrees (felt like 52 or so).  Sunny and gorgeous.  One factor that was not so perfect was the 15-18 mph wind that was hitting us from the south/southwest.  When it picked up... brrr!  And it was STRONG!  The race was very very small.  Less than 100 people running (about 2/3 of them were women).  Because of the location of the trail as well as the size of the race, there was very little crowd support.  I had decided at the last minute to run sans music.  My friends and I did an easy quarter-mile jog to get warmed up, and then it was time to race!  Both the start and the finish were on about .1 of a mile of uneven grass that led up to the trail.  As we ran past the small crowd cheering at the start, I knew that grass wasn't going to be fun at the end of the race!

As predicted, Jeanne-Marie went out a bit fast, but Adele and I were able to settle into a comfortable pace.  She has an incredible knack for knowing what pace we are running at without even looking at her Garmin, and is great about reeling me in when I get carried away (happens often LOL).  So the first five miles went exactly as I had planned.  Unfortunately, I had to leave Adele at around mile 4.2 or so, as she was dropping off of the 9:05-ish pace that we'd set.  We had talked about it, though, and I knew she would be okay with it.  I caught up to Jeanne-Marie at around mile 5.  She wasn't in a good place already, I could tell.  We ran together for about a mile, but again, I realized that the pace wasn't there for her, so I forged on by myself.  The wind was definitely not helping matters.  There were times when we would run by a corn field that was recently harvested and I thought I might be knocked over!  It was all I could do to keep running, honestly.  I kept waiting and waiting for the turn-around at 6.55 miles.  It FINALLY came at 6.75 miles, which meant that the total race was going to be 13.5 miles, NOT 13.1 miles as advertised.  To non-runners, .4 of a mile is nothing.  To runners, that is a TON... a good 4 minutes or so of running for those in my pace bracket!

During miles 5.5-6.5, I kept myself mentally engaged by counting the runners passing me on their way back.  I had gotten up to around 15 men and around 8 women when I hit the turn-around, and I was pretty pleased with where I was at.  Feeling pretty good overall at that point.  The first mile or so back toward the start was awesome.  The trail was at a decline, there was very little wind, and getting to see my friends run by... I had to force myself to stay calm and not over-run too early.  Reality hit me at around mile 9 or so.  The wind came back full-force, and the decline was basically gone.  I was focusing on picking off my competitors as well as gradually increasing my speed.  Things were going well in this department till mile 11, when I started to get really tired, and my breathing got ragged.  I was worried... would I be able to finish this race?  I passed a girl who was in worse shape than me, and asked her if she was okay.  We chatted for a bit... it was her second half marathon, and she had ran a 1:47 at her first.  Can you say Speedy Gonzalez?!!  She didn't have a Garmin, and the mile markers were few and far between, so I updated with where we were at for mileage and pace.  She fell off the pace quickly, and I continued to try to do what I could to stick with my plan of negative splitting.  I knew at that point that I was very likely going to be able to go sub-1:55, based on my splits. That definitely kept me going!  My other big issue: at around 11.5 miles, my right calf started to "twinge", like it wanted to cramp up.  If it had, I knew I'd have to walk, so I just kept praying it wouldn't.  Thankfully it held out the entire way.  I had been trying to pass one woman in particular for about 4 miles, and finally overtook her at around mile 12.  At mile 12.5, we crossed a small road and the race organizer was there stopping traffic for us to cross.  I yelled at him, "This is NOT mile 12.5, FYI!"  My Garmin clearly read 12.9 at that point.  

I contemplated stopping my Garmin at 13.1, but instead just looked at my watch and noted the time: 1:54:18.  I had done it!!!  A sub-1:55 half!  I was still really annoyed that I had another .4 miles to run, though.  Ugh, too far.  It was never-ending, that last part of the race, but I trudged in on that grassy field and finally crossed the finish line at a gun-time of 1:57:57.   My splits...

Upon finishing, I immediately started to cry from the pain and fatigue.  Lots of emotion!!!  After I had my mini-meltdown, I grabbed water and a banana and chatted with the other finishers about the extra .4 of a mile, which they all had logged on their Garmins as well (see, runners are obsessive!).  Then I walked around and watched the finishers and waited for my two friends to come in.  Adele ran in at around 2:08 and Jeanne-Marie came in a couple of minutes later.  Jeanne-Marie had a really rough race and was not happy with herself, but I hugged her and told her it was all good... she had just ran a half three weeks prior, after all!

The fatigue and soreness set in immediately after my race. I was so thankful that I had brought my 110% compression sleeves and ice packs... they slide right into the sleeves, and it was heaven to get that ice on my sore calves.  I made sure to foam roll when I got home, and took a nice Epsom salt bath.  Even after all that, I am feeling it this morning, that's for sure!  But wow, am I ever proud of myself.  A six-minute PR!  Amazing :)  Overall, I was the 5th fastest woman, and I was 2nd in my age group (30-39 year olds).  Granted, it was a small race, but that still rocks :) Only 12 guys beat me, also... go me!

So, what's next?  I can tell you what is NOT next... I am not running in today's 4-mile race!  Thankfully, a friend's husband bought my bib from me.  I had considered walking the race, but glad I made the decision this week to just skip it.  I will definitely run in it next year, as you get to run in the stadium--too cool!  I have several friends who are running in shorter races on Thanksgiving, but I am not planning on doing any of those.  There is a 4-miler at Sharon Woods (a local park) in December that I could possibly see myself doing, provided there isn't snow or ice on the ground (or that it's not sub-zero outside!).  As far as my next long race... I am torn between running Cap City again at the beginning of May and going for a new PR (maybe sub-1:50?!!), or maybe... just maybe... running in my first full marathon (a whole 26.2 miles!) in the spring.  There is a very flat race out in Toledo at the end of April.  I am just not sure I can commit to the training needed to run a full.  So we'll see how it all pans out.  For now, I will just enjoy running with my friends on weekends, and try to fit in my runs on weekdays.... AFTER I recover from this race. :)

The PR that wasn't meant to be (AKA: my first squad ride)

What a day.  If you are reading this, you probably already know what happened today.  This blog will give you the nitty gritty details.

I woke up at 6:15 AM.  Felt good... got dressed, ate a banana, double-checked directions to the parking garage where I would be parking, and was out the door by 6:45.  No problem getting parked, and I was at the spot that some Moms Run This Town friends and I had pre-arranged to meet at by 7:20 AM.  Katie and Michelle arrived by 7:35 and we chatted for a bit.  Took a photo and I left them to go do my pre-race one-mile warm-up.  Felt great.  Used the porta-potty and went to go line up for the race.  I was excited to find my friend Angela at the starting line, so we chatted for a few minutes.  The race actually started about 8 minutes early, and caught us off-guard!  Fortunately it didn't matter, as I had decided to run without music, and my Garmin was good to go.

My goal was to take it out easy, as usual.  It is SO very hard to do that!  I ended up taking it out about 15 seconds faster than I planned.  Actually, after 5 miles I was almost 2 minutes below my goal pace.  At that point, I was a bit nervous, as I was getting hot and tired, and still had 8 miles to go.  However, my next 5 miles were a full minute faster than the first 5, so I was still right on with where I needed to be... in fact, even though I wasn't following my plan and negative-splitting (getting progressively faster) like I typically do on my long runs, I was holding a good pace and was still 40 seconds under my goal pace.  I definitely started to hit the wall, though, during the 11th mile. I can remember checking my watch and being shocked at how slowly the tenths of a mile were ticking by.  The course had a lot more hills than I had anticipated; even though I had studied the course map ahead of time, I wasn't prepared for so many up-and-downs, and those were draining me quickly. 

I remember checking my watch at 10.6 miles and thinking, how am I ever going to run 2.5 more miles?!  I was really feeling bad at that point.  I kept telling myself, DO NOT WALK, if you walk you won't be able to start running again.  It was so hard to keep moving.  My last conscious thought was to stop my Garmin as I felt myself collapsing.   Yes, I actually did stop my watch.  Crazy, I know, but you have to be at least a bit crazy to run a half-marathon!  That was at 9:49 AM, 1 hour and 37 minutes after I had started the race (at exactly 11.00 miles).  The next thing I remember is being in the medic van, and the medics asking me if I knew where I was.  I know that something had to happen between passing out and being in the van, because the medics told me they were at the finish line, which was 2 miles from where I was at.  I wish I knew if another runner had stopped and stayed with me... I would want to thank them, of course.  I don't know if I will ever know what transpired during that time, though. 

It was pretty scary being in the medic van, and then in the squad that they sent.  I was extremely hot (temp over 100) and they said I was tachycardic (heart rate very high).  My calves were cramping up badly as well.  The EMTs in the squad asked if I remembered vomiting, and I said no, but they said the medics at the scene said I did.  Yet another thing I just don't remember at all.  It took quite a while for them to stabilize me enough so that they could transport me to the hospital.  All the while, I kept wondering if anyone had contacted my husband. I also was worried about my friend Danielle, who was waiting for me at the finish line as my cheerleader.  I wasn't sure if she knew what was going on.  I later learned that they had announced my name over the loudspeaker at the finish and asked if anyone knew me.  She ran to the race director and he told her that I was with the medics, and that they were transferring me to Grant Hospital.  I am so grateful that she was there, as she was able to get in touch with Joe and let him know what had happened. 

I finally started to feel a bit better when we arrived at the ER, which was around 11:15-11:30 I think.  They did bloodwork and an EKG, and by the time Joe arrived at around 12:30, I was feeling much better.  At that point, I was actually starting to feel a bit mad, as I had been on pace for a 1:55, which was my goal.  I was two measily miles from the finish when I collapsed!  Anyway, we waited a bit longer for them to get the results of the tests and I was finally discharged at around 2:00 PM. 

So, as I said... what a day.  As I lay in the squad, I kept thinking, well this is the end of my running career.  But by the time Joe got to the hospital, I was contemplating finding another half to run in the next couple of weeks.  I trained so hard for this race, and to have it end this way is just not cool at all.  I am obviously going to take a few days off from running and let myself recover.  Right now I don't have another race scheduled until November 10.  There is a half-marathon in Columbus on October 20, and I am considering going to the expo on Saturday night and seeing if they have a leftover bib (that someone didn't pick up) that I can buy.  We'll see... for now, it's rest time :) 

Emerald City Quarter Marathon Race Recap

I have been wanting to write this recap for six days (!), but life has gotten in the way.  The first full week of school threw me for a loop, both physically and mentally.  I always forget how hard it is on me to go back to work!  I haven't had time for much of anything other than working (both at school and at home--lesson plans & grading), shuttling the kids to their activities, and sleeping (far too little of it), hence the recap being so late.  But, better late than never!  Oh and please excuse any typos... Hunter had me up at 3:50 AM and I am typing this before the sun comes up...

I was feeling pretty darn good the night before the race.  Legs felt rested, and mentally was quite excited for this one. 

Flat Marcie!

I had decided on GU Strawberry Banana for my refueling, with SportsBeans (berry) for pre-race.  There are two GU's only because I was worried I would drop one, as a friend did on a recent triathlon!  Honestly, I am sure I could've gone through 6.5 miles without refueling, but I feel better when I do it, so I figured I would GU-up.  I ran in my new Mizuno Wave Inspire 9's.  They are the same make and model as my previous pair of shoes, but OH so much prettier than the orange!  I had about 25 miles on them so I felt they were broken in enough for the race. 

The race took place in Dublin, about 20 minutes from my house, and was set to start at 7 AM . I was up just after 5:00 to have breakfast, and left as planned at around 5:50.  I figured I would get to the race with plenty of time to park, do my mile warm-up, and stretch out before it started.  I hate being late to places, so I always plan on needing extra time.  SO glad I did in this case... traffic was horrible!  It took me about 30 minutes to finally get to the parking lot.  I was stuck in standstill traffic at one point and was sooooo nervous!  But it ended up being fine; I parked and walked over to the race start, and then found a nice big parking lot nearby where I could warm-up.  Had my SportBeans at 6:30 and headed to the starting corral at 6:50.  

You can see in the pic above that I only have one earbud in.  I realized when I got to the parking lot that one of the little soft bud covers had come off at some point.  Annoying!  Oh well, I just tucked that one into my shirt for the race.  Not too big of a deal, I suppose.  I had actually considered running sans-music for this race, so I figured this would give me the best of both worlds LOL.

I had decided to start with 1-hour pacer, and then try to catch the 55-minute pacer by the end (or stay as close to her as possible).  This was the first race that I had the plan to stay with a pacer, as they aren't typically around smaller races, and at Cap City I had no clue what I would be doing.  The starting corral was really crowded.  About 2700 runners were in the race (half and quarter marathons combined).  Just before 7:00, they announced that many were still stuck in traffic on 33, and the start would be delayed to allow more to make it to the race.  It bummed me out, because at that point I was ready to go!  My Garmin kept going into power-saving mode, and I kept having to find the satellites over and over again.  I had created a new play list for my race and since I was toting my phone in my FlipBelt and wanted to have it in there when the race started, I must have listened to the first song on my playlist 5 times while I waited.  

I had hoped to meet up with my friend Tamara pre-race; we ran the Cap City together, and although she was doing the half today and I was doing the quarter, I wanted a pre-race photo together.  Unfortunately, she was one of those who was stuck in traffic, and we never found each other :(

The horn finally went off at around 7:13 AM.  I of course was fiddling with my darn playlist on my phone and ran the first 500 yards or so with it in my hands, trying to get my music to start up again (GooglePlay stopped!) and then getting my phone back in my belt.  Stressed me out, but just a bit, and I quickly hit my stride. 

I spent the first mile telling myself to take it EASY.  The race route was really really pretty.  We ran through a few big fields during the first mile, and I took it all in.  Despite my self-talk, I went out about 15 seconds faster than I had planned.  However, I felt amazing... not like I was working hard at all, so I was okay with it.  The second mile was the same... a couple of seconds faster, but still very easy on the effort level.  At that point, I knew I was going to have to start to pick it up, as I was a third of the way done.  Felt good, but the intensity started to rise.  At mile 3 I took my GU easily, and felt it kick in at around 3.5 miles.  However, it was by then that the pace that I had taken the race out in was starting to come back to haunt me.  I was feeling it, and I still had a few miles to go.  Ugh! 

As always, my goal was to negative split the race.  I was worried that wasn't going to happen for a bit, due to the fatigue I had started to feel.  However, I took strength from a few things.  One: passing other people.  I love to run by runners during a race!  I love knowing that my race plan is working out.  I don't get passed too often in the final mile or two of a race, and that makes me smile.  And two: the cheering crowd.  This route had quite a few pockets of people cheering on the runners, and some were quite loud, with their cowbells and such.  There were even two youth cheerleading squads, and one had a great pyramid!  I really got into high-fiving the spectators, and it was funny how my pace would get faster right before and after I would do it.  I was totally feeding off of their energy.  I haven't ever really done that in a race, but it definitely was fun!

Lots of self-talk going on during miles 4-6.  I kept telling myself that I could do this, that I had trained and was prepared for this race.  It was still so very hard, though.  I was counting down the half miles left, the quarter miles left.  Anything to keep my mind off of how tired I was feeling.  I was keeping tabs on where I might finish as well.  I had done some projections using possible split times, and knew that if I came in at the 5K at around 26:30, I would have a pretty good chance of going sub-55 (my "ultimate" goal).  I was right at 26:30, so that got me pumped.  At 3.5 miles I hit 30:00, so I did some mental math quickly realizing I would need a sub-25 minute 5K in order to make my goal.  That freaked me out just a bit, considering my PR is 24:26!  I am such a numbers geek, and it doesn't change when I am running.


It wasn't until around mile 6.1 or so that I caught sight of the 55 minute pacer.  She was a good bit ahead of me, though, and I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to be able to catch her in the final stretch.  I would definitely try, though!  When I saw the bend in the road towards the finish, and then the finish arch, I put it into high gear, sprinting with all I had.  I was actually surprised by how much I did have left!  I was looking at my Garmin, knowing how very close I was going to be to the 55-minute mark.  I must have checked it 10 times in the final tenth of a mile.  I was so happy when I ran under that archway and got my medal!

They had towels in pools of ice... wonderful idea!  I wore it from right after my race until I got home.  I went to the post-race area, grabbed a bagel and a banana, downed some chocolate milk (not something I prefer, but really good for post-race recovery), and gave the engraver my medal; for $10 they will engrave your name and time on the spot!  With a medal as pretty as this one, I wanted it to be engraved.  While I waited for my medal to be finished, I went over to the OhioHealth booth and foam rolled for about 10 minutes.  Another super-awesome thing to have post-race! 

I knew that my official time would be oh-so-close to my goal.  Here is the side-by-side comparison of my Garmin and my medal.

Yep, as close as predicted... Garmin says 54:59, and the medal says 55:00!  I couldn't believe that I didn't make it in under 55:00 on the official clock, but I had to laugh when I saw that time.

A few random guys took this for me when they saw me struggling to take a selfie after the race...

So, all in all, I am super-happy with this race.  I was extremely close to my "ultimate" goal, the one that I really didn't think I could attain.  (And according to my Garmin, I got it... so I'll go with the Garmin, please and thank you!)  Even better, I rocked my splits!

I hate to brag, but you really couldn't ask for much better than that when it comes to negative splits.  This race really does give me confidence for my half in October, and going sub-2:00.

As far as how I have felt post-race... sore, definitely.  I had hoped that rolling and stretching right after I raced would make a difference, but I don't think it did.  Still the same ol' sore legs for a few days afterwards.  I haven't had much time to run this week, either.  I did a 3 mile easy run on Wednesday night in 85-degree temps with 72 dewpoint (UGH UGH UGH), but that was it.  No cross-training, either.  Just too busy, and when I do the chance to do anything, I am too exhausted to even consider it!  Planning on heading out soon for 10 miles, though!  Nice and easy is the plan... hoping to stick to it.  Five more weeks till the half!!!

The interruption of life

I figured that blogging would take a back seat as my life resumed... "life" meaning work.  As a teacher, I have the luxury of summers off ("off" of course is a relative term... I am "off" from taking care of other people's children, but instead spend the day with my own).  While my summers are far from relaxing, I don't have to wake up at 5:30 AM (unless I want to run, of course!), I get to chill for a couple of hours while the twins nap each day, and most importantly, I don't have to write lesson plans or grade papers!  This is why I started to blog... I simply had the time to do so.  We went back to school on Monday, thus I had zero time to blog this week. I imagine I will have to simply start doing "weekly recaps" instead of daily blogs, at least until winter break ;)

I have a race on Sunday!  It sort of snuck up on me. With getting ready to start back to work, and then actually starting back, I haven't had the time to think about the race much at all.  I am running a quarter-marathon (6.55 miles), and wanted to do a mini-taper this week.  Meaning no tempo run, no real speed work or anything.  So here is what this week looked like:

Monday: cross-train (arms workout, plus 60 pushups done in sets of 30-20-10)

Tuesday: rest

Wednesday: 4 miles easy after Char's dance class (7:15 PM).  This one hurt more than it should have.  I kept my pace easy, but I just felt blah during the run.  It was my students' first day back, and I wore 4" heels all day long.  OUCH.  I am chalking the ickiness of this run up to that.  Splits were 10:15, 10:00, 9:52, and 9:50 (39:58). 

Thursday: rest

Friday: 2 miles easy (20:48).  I woke up at 5 AM this morning to get in a run.  I had planned on just cross-training today, and not running at all until my race on Sunday morning, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought a run made sense.  Not running at all for over 3 days didn't sound like a good plan.  It went better than Wednesday.  Still didn't feel spectacular, but I was able to do a quarter-mile pick-up at the end (down to around my 10K pace), and then I did a couple 30-yard strides, just to kick it in a bit.  

The plan is to rest tomorrow (may fit in an arm or a core workout, but we have yet another busy day, so that may not happen), and then race on Sunday morning, bright and early (race start is at 7 AM).

Goals... I have gone over these in my head several times.  I *should* be able to hold around an 8:15-8:20/mile pace, based on my 5K time from last month.  That pace seems unbelievably fast to me.  That would be a sub-55 race, which would be... wow.  Fast.  

So my C goal (the one I really should accomplish, based on my times and training) is a sub-1 hour.  That's a 9:09/mile pace.  Considering I did my half in 2 hours and 50 seconds, going under an hour should not be a problem.

My B goal (the one I really think I can do, if I work hard) is a sub-57.  That would be an 8:41/mile pace.  Quite a bit faster than my C goal, but definitely a do-able goal.  

And my A goal?  The one where I just might cry if I get there?  A sub-55.  I find it hard to believe that I can run that fast, but heck, it's worth a shot!