Churchill's 46.5 Half Marathon recap

I'd like to say this race was as great as Columbus 3 weeks ago.  But that would be a lie.  This was a new course for this race, and a first in our area - a point to point course.  Starting at the Perrysburg High School and ending at the Fallen Timbers mall.  Also, this race was moved to the fall, because it traditionally has been in March, so that was something new too.  Traditionally, I also always consider this my worst race of the year.  I'm not sure why.  It's always windy, and I always end up walking.  But more on that soon enough....

Pre race night was spend getting some carbs at Carabba's.  It worked out well because the kids were both at sleepovers.  The race didn't start until 9am, but we had to be transported to the start area, so we parked our car at the mall and climbed on a bus.  It was a chilly morning!  And super windy.  It was fun riding the bus with the other runners.  Always fun to see what clothes people are wearing, and second guessing your own outfit!

The high school was a great place to hang out.  The line for the bathroom wasn't too bad, and it was nice and heated.  I ran into several friends and we all gave each other words of encouragement.  And soon, the national anthem was playing, and the race had started!

I didn't really have many goals for this race - just one... to run up the last set of hills, which I have been training on.  Other than that, I thought I would just play it by ear.  I quickly found out that this was just going to be one of "those races".... those races where I get a bit unmotivated and just walk!  That wind was just killing me.  I think I walked first around mile 6.  Then, around mile 8.  Then again as we started climbing up the hills *before* the hills :)  Oh well.  As I walked and ran, I kept passing, and then being passed by some of the same people.  Guess I wasn't the only one with that plan.

As I reached the hills that I had been training on, I gave it my best and sure enough I did run up those hills!  Woohoo!  I was so close to the end now, I could see the mall where the finish line was.  But then after the hills I made "the turn".  You know the turn... the one *into* the strong wind.  In fact, that wind was so hard it stopped me in my tracks.  Well, at least it made me stop running and walk again.  Bummer!  I really hoped I could keep it up, but I couldn't.  I tried to run again, but had to walk.















I made one more attempt to run, and then walked.  As I started to walk, a voice behind me said "come on Lisa, you can do it!".  To my surprise, it was John, our UPS guy!  He is our UPS driver at work, and is super friendly.  He knows all of us in the office and I have seen him at several races before.  So I decided to give it one more try and told him I was going to finish with him.  Then I felt a bit guilty, like I was holding him back!  However, he reassured me that he couldn't go any faster either.

We got closer to the finish line and he tried to encourage me - "come on, I'll let you sprint to the finish!".  Sadly, that wasn't going to happen!  I did keep running though, and I finally crossed the finish line.  We both gave each other a "good job" comment, and then I started heading out of there, in search of a place to sit on the ground.  I thought I was going to throw up!  That was a first.  I was so out of it that I had to be stopped to get my medal placed on me as a quickly wandered away.  I didn't even see Alan cheering for me!  My time was 1:56:10.

Here is a funny video of me finishing... and feeling REALLY exhausted!

After panting for awhile, I finally felt better and talked to Alan and some other friends that were at the finish.  We headed for the party tent for our well earned beer.  Alan had a pretty good race - 1:31:24.  Not a PR, but he was happy with it.  In fact, he got 3rd in his age group.  Free socks!  My friend Berenice got 1st in Masters.  She was embarrassed about the Masters category, but when she found out the prize was $75, she was happy to accept it :)

After the race I found this fabulous blister on my toe... next to the black toenail.  Wow, I'm glad I didn't feel that one!

Columbus (half) marathon

Race day has finally arrived!  My training for this half marathon has been a bit sketchy. I've been hitting my long runs, but the other runs I between were loosely scheduled based on some plan that I can't even remember the source. I've made it a priority to run the "hills" once a week for the past few weeks. I've felt great satisfaction as my times have improved each week. I ran a 5K last weekend and out of the blue I nailed. 25:05!  Dang, I was so pleased with that. But let's talk about Columbus now.

We got a late start to our trip down to Columbus and we had just enough time to pick up our race packet and make a stop at Target. Alan has had 3 iPod Shuffles die on him due to sweatiness, which is crazy because he keeps them in a ziplock bag when he runs! Regardless, we had to buy him another one. We are getting smart and buying the replacement plans now ;)
It was so fun at the expo because our name was on one of the pickup signs!

I was excited because I scored a hat for running that was on sale for $10, and reduced to $5 as I was looking at it. Deal!

We met a group of runners for dinner at Bravo. Delicious food and great pre race psych up talk!  It was a tough crowd because they were mostly Boston runners and all were much faster than me.  We had our pre race ritual of watching Run Fatboy, Run, then it was time to try and get some sleep.

On race morning we woke up at 5am. I did get some sleep, but 5 was really early. Alan said he barely slept at all so he was pretty tired. We were supposed to leave at 6 am but didn't get out the door until 6:10. The trip in to downtown Columbus wasn't a problem but we had to wait at least 20 minutes to get to the garage. That 10 minute late start made all the difference. Luckily we didn't have to use the port-a-potties because we got to the corrals just 15 mins before the start!

It was just 40 degrees at the start so we had shorts (Lulu skirt), t-shirts, throw away hats, gloves, shirts and of course our new favorite item - sock arm warmers!  I loved this years choice. They matched my outfit fabulously! And I can't forget to mention I was also wearing a Rainbow Loom bracelet that also coordinated with my outfit.... thanks kids for the inspiration!!

Here we are dressed in our throwaways - just minutes before cramming into the race corrals...  I'm not sure if I am thankful, or worried, that I can always find crappy old clothes that I don't care about tossing at a race in my closet!!

 

My race plan was to go 8:30 for the first 6 miles and then pick up the pace to 8:15. The first mile was relatively slow, weaving around everyone. It was 8:58. After that I kept an eye on pace and tried to keep it under 8:30. I did a good job because my average pace was 8:30 halfway. It felt good.  The crowd support was awesome and it really helped me along.

The miles went by so fast, and it was time to refuel.  I was a little late in figuring out when the water stops were, so as I approached one I wolfed down my GU pack.  Then chugged some water.  Blah.  For about a mile I dreaded having done that, but I'd like to think it helped me out.  I just don't have much interest in fueling or hydrating during races.

After that I tried to pick it up, but in retrospect it never made it. I wasn't struggling but it was a challenge, just like a race should be.  In reviewing my splits, there were actually all over the place, but in the end they averaged out good, so that's all that matters!

Here I am around mile 9 I think.  This would have been such a cute picture... if only my eyes were open!  Why didn't they snap a picture when I was wildly waving my arms at the photographer or "raising the roof"?  Kodak moments for sure!

Around mile 12 I knew the end was near. Just 2 more miles up High street and the finish was there!  At that point the course goes uphill and my motivation was lacking. I had considered even walking a few steps at that point, but I talked myself out of it and finished it out. One more uphill, and then a quick downhill trip through the finish line chute. I finished in 1:51:12. Woohoo! That's a new PR for me, so I was thrilled with that.

 

I still have a feeling I could have pushed it harder (need to work on that motivation issue!!), so maybe that sub 1:50 race is still in my future.  Along with that sub 25:00 5K!
Here are my race splits:

1	8:58
2	8:36
3	8:20
4	8:31
5	8:07
6	8:13
7	8:41
8	8:28
9	8:12
10	8:26
11	8:25
12	8:32
13	8:33
14	7:41

I can honestly say though, since my last long races have been marathons, I have never been so happy about being able to turn off and follow the half marathon sign to the finish!!  I kept thinking - "suckers!  you still have 13.1 more to go!!".  That's bad, isn't it :)

 

I hung out in the "Celebration Village" after the race.  Ate the free food: ice cream, yogurt tube, Luna bars, chocolate milk and lined up for the stretching booth from a chiropractor.  Wow, he did a great job.  Too bad Alan isn't trained in that sort of stuff!  Then I made my way to the bridge at mile 26 to wait for Alan.  He came speeding along and I waved at him and cheered him on.  Then, made my way through the crowds to the finish line again.
 The first thing I said to Alan was "you know you have a bloody nipple, don't you?"  Surprisingly he didn't.  He even said the other nipple was the one that hurt! (very attractive)

After the race, and showers, we met up with our runner friends again and shared stories of our races.  Alan ended up with the fastest time out of the group - 3:12.  Great job speedy!! It wasn't a PR for him, but he was still very happy with it because he had a mixed up training schedule with his 50 miler back in September.  A big juicy burger and a beer (or two) were in order.  Cheers!

The best surprise for me was that I placed 25th out of 474 women in my age group! That's crazy! Also, I was 1,638 out of 10,215 total runners. And ironically, Alan was 25th in his age group too!  I surprised myself with this race. Love to have success after my hiatus this summer.

Ultra race and Manistee trip book

I put together a book at Shutterfly about our trip to Manistee and Alan's first 50 mile ultra.  Once again I allowed Shutterfly to create the original layout and design of the book and I just had to cut it down a few pages and tweak it a little bit.  But not much.  I am really pleased with Shutterfly's new book making process.  I think they got it right this time!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

Color Me RAD!

I have to admit, this color run was not my idea of fun.  When I signed up.  But after I got running, it turned out to be a lot of fun!  Sydney was the one who originally wanted to do this race with her friend.  So, me, always looking for a chance to get out and run (most especially with Sydney!), decided to give it a go.  This event was put on by Color Me Rad and was held at the University of Toledo.

I was quite sure I was going to gag on the powder, be blinded by it, or end up having semi-permanent rainbow hair.  Luckily, none of those things really happened.

Here is our race gang at the start.  It was actually a chilly morning.  But, being the experienced runners that we are, I convinced my kids that they would not be cold once we started.  Luckily, that was true too!  I actually liked those glasses quite a bit.  I might just run in them again!!

Here's the start line.  The color is starting to fly!

 

Alan, our personal photographer, wasn't quite ready when we ran into him unexpectedly on the course.  We all had to run in slow motion so he could get the shot!  I got to run with the kids because the Mom's felt they couldn't keep up. 

Along the course we were pelted with colored powder (cornstarch) and squirted with liquid color (same powder).  The liquid actually made for better looking t-shirts, so I didn't mind!  The kids did a great job of staying in motion most of the time.  We only took maybe 2 short walking breaks.  Sydney and Zack kept on running though, and I had to urge them to "fall back"!

As I spied the finish line, I egged them on... "who wants to race me to the finish?".   Note to self, make sure the finish line is closer next time.  The kids now give me a run for the money - and in this case I lost to Zack!  As a side note, I have to say this is probably the best finish line picture ever taken of me!  Looking strong!!

 Sydney emerged from the color shortly after us.  So proud of them both!

 At the finish line we were giving a color pack to throw into the air at the "party".  A very beautiful sight!  After getting more color thrown on me, and going nearly deaf from the DJ, I remembered I had two more kids that I was in charge of!!!  OOOOOOPPPS.  Where the heck did they go?  I was greatly relieved to see that they had followed our plan and they went to the pre-arranged meeting spot when they were done.  I can't believe I did that!  I'm usually much more dependable with kids :)

 Don't we look RAD?  It was a good time. I'm happy I got to be a part of this race - one I think the kids won't forget!

 

It's me... on Another blog!! :)

I was so giddy when I saw this in my blog feed this morning....  I feel like a celebrity!

 

Yep, that's me on the Another Mother Runner blog today.  I sent in my story from the Columbus marathon.  You can read my full race recap here.

I was especially giddy when I got an email last night asking me for a few more details, because I knew it was coming soon!  However, I'm not sure why my picture was so big (needs a resize) and how they knew I was in Monclova.  I had told them I live in Maumee.  Good sleuthing AMR!
Anyhow, it's super weird, fun, and exciting all at the same time to see my story.  I think I'll just keep looking at my blog feed all day, until my post rolls out of sight. :)

Back to school... 2013!

It's the first day of school!  The kids are getting so big - Sydney will be getting on the early bus for the middle school now.  The bus comes an hour earlier, which is not a huge deal for me because I have been getting up so early to bike/run, but for others in the house it means a big change of routine!

 

Too bad I hacked up the bush they normally pose in front of a few weeks ago (oops).  Anyhow, here are my happy little students.  They truly are excited to get back to school and see their friends.  I am digging getting back into routine!!

They actually picked out matching backpacks this year.  They were sold on the all of the pockets in these things.  Hopefully they won't stash away stuff in the pockets and forget it!

 

What kids, you don't want to go back to school??  That's not true!

 

 The weather at the bus stop was beautiful.  A great day to start school!

Here I am in my running gear!  Yep, I took a slow, exhausting run around the neighborhood before helping Sydney get ready for school.    Happy first day of school, kids!  I hope they have a great day.

 

Mouth update - I am back to feeling my old self again.  The pain is gone almost totally but I'm still very careful with it.  I'll get my stitches out on Monday. YAHOO!!!!!  I didn't think I'd ever feel this good again :)

Big bummer talk

Well, I'm going to be a drag this morning.  I'm just putting it out there.  I am 6 days post-op from gum surgery, and it's making me miserable.  I knew this surgery would have a painful recovery, but I heard it passed quickly - like maybe 3 days.  Well here I am 6 days later and I'm still not right!  The roof of my mouth no longer feels like it's on fire, and my face is no longer painful to touch... and only slightly swollen, but my whole mouth just aches.  It's that feeling like I have eaten a bunch of candy and it's all stuck in my gums and between my teeth and I need to floss super bad (or that I've neglected flossing for a long time and then flossed too hard)... but I can't get rid of that feeling!  I hope this is just a normal reaction, but if it wasn't for the steady stream of my Ibuprofen 800's, I'd be in tears all day :(  I thought I was on a turnaround yesterday, but with the aches I had last night and this morning I realize that was not the case.  I woke up pretty sore again this morning, and sure enough, a half hour after I took my meds I was feeling a bit better.  Note to self, get prescription refilled!
 
I think the even worse part of this is not just the soreness, but it's the major crankiness I am unloading on the family.  My poor family.  I just don't feel like doing a thing and I snip at everyone.  blah!!!  Oh, and this is all perfectly timed to happen just when I was starting back on running.  Running... my sanity saver.  Well, it used to be.  Now it just fills me with frustration because I am winded by jogging a mile, and all that bouncing around feels like crap on my mouth.  waaaaaaa  Yes, this is a pity party.  Feeling bad for me yet?? 
Here is a poor quality shot of the roof of my mouth after surgery.  This is the "donor" location where they removed my skin.  Ouch!!!

One slightly good thing is that I get to eat a lot of ice cream.  That makes me feel better.  However, I think it is also adding to my waistline.  The last time I ate a bowl of ice cream every day was when I was pregnant!  Here's the collection I have waiting for me in my freezer...

So to combat the weight gain, I have been biking still.  Getting up early to bike... that is getting harder every morning.  5:50 is really freaking dark around here now.  And cold.  It was 50 this morning.  ugggghhh  It takes me about a half hour before I am getting into my workout and then I do enjoy it by the time I get home.  So there is a bright side of that early morning gig.  Even though my hands barely functioned until I got out of my hot shower.  Guess I need to take a pair of gloves with me too.  I got some cool pictures of fog this morning....

One morning I had a group of 5 deer just standing in the field watching me!  I know this is a terrible picture, but it was dark out, and I had to zoom in on my iPhone.  But trust me, they looked pretty awesome in real life. :)

 

I look like a super Tour de France cyclist, don't I??  Safety Sam, that's me.  I especially like how I can't smile properly due to my swelling/loss of full muscle control on the right side of my cheeks.  UGH.

So there you have it.  Feeling pretty sucky and down and out these days.  However, they say writing is therapeutic, so instead of spending more time whining to my family members, I am getting it out of my system so one day I can look back at this and laugh at how I felt.  I hope that day is soon.  I can't wait to be spending my morning working up a sweat running on the towpath, and enjoying a feeling of accomplishment.  It's funny because as I listen to my iPod during my bike ride, I can remember every long run I was on when I heard a specific song.  Especially the one which got me through a lot of my training for the marathons and the actual races this past spring:


And my current favorite, which really speaks to me about my comeback to running in the near future...  for the rest of this negativity, this too shall pass.

Photo Book

Surprisingly, it took less time for me to whip up this Shutterfly book than it probably would have done to put a blog post together about our trip!  Shutterfly has really improved the "make it yourself" version of the book maker and added some very nice (and essential, in my opinion) touches so that everything can be customized.  Thanks Shutterfly!!
Here is a quick recap of my trip to Florida.....

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

Well, I think this just about sums it up for June.

 

Ever since I started tracking my training several years ago, this is the first time I've had this much of a break in running.  Just a whole bunch of zeros.  I did realize today that I could put my biking in here and it would not mess up my stats, so starting today I will keep track of that.  At least I get some credit for doing something! :)

My break in training is due to a stress fracture in my heel.  I just learned that on Monday after an MRI.  I was feeling quite silly about going in for an MRI.  They are expensive and take a lot of time (an hour!) and I really thought the Dr was just going to say everything was looking good, and I could slowly start running again.  But no, it was quite the opposite.  I still have swelling where the bursitis on the side of my foot/ankle area. That was what the Dr was curious about.

I think stress fractures are an odd thing... I guess they don't show up right away in testing.  I never felt any pain during my training, or even during the Cleveland marathon, but an hour after the marathon my foot hurt.  Actually, it was after I got up from sitting down and drinking a beer after the marathon!  Maybe sitting cross legged did it!  Ok, maybe not.  But who knows. 

The Dr said to come visit him in a month and we'll look at the images and discuss where we go from here.  I have a trip to Florida coming up and I think I might just be wearing that boot while walking in the park.  It is a lot of walking, and I don't want to reinjure anything.  Maybe I'll get some breaks while waiting in line :)

Sunny Father's Day

It turned out to be a very nice warm sunny Father's Day this year.  After Alan went out for his second long run of the weekend (he's training for a 50 mile race in August), he enjoyed some much needed relaxation by the pool.  

As an added bonus to us, he made us all margaritas!  Well, the kids got the kiddie versions, but they were equally delicious!

Toledo Zoo Dart Frog Dash

The Toledo Zoo had it's annual Dart Frog Dash 5K on May 18th (yep, the day before the Cleveland marathon).  Since Alan and I were both running Cleveland the next day, we decided to just run with the kids.  This is the first time they have run the 5K for this event.  I figured it was time for them to kick it up a notch from the 1K kids run.

 

Hmmm, not sure why my kids are so squished in this picture... but let's just go with it. Me and Blogger have not been best of friends lately with pictures!!

 

Is it time to run yet??  They were both overly concerned about an airgun going off at the start, but much to all of our surprise, there was no gun!  (yahoo!)

 

 Sydney and Alan ran together.  Note the shades of green.  Team yellow consisted of Zachary and myself.

 

These pictures are so cute of them running together because they are in sync!!

 

 Here is my racing buddy.  He did such a great job!  He never once complained about it or stopped running.  He did ask how far we had gone, but only to judge how much longer we had.  I was very impressed!  Based on his previous runs we had expected him to finish in under 45 minutes and Sydney under 30 minutes.

Here is a "hilly" area of the course.  I know, it hardly looks like there is a hill up ahead, but there is! 

 We got to see some street art too!

 This year they are working on the aquarium so they had to reroute the course through the Tembo Trail.  That was scenic, although the elephants weren't out.  It did create a really sharp turn though!

 As we were doubling-back in a part of the course we saw Sydney and Alan behind us!  I was later told that she was not the happiest runner that day.  Just saying....

 That really lit a fire under Sydney and she picked up the pace!!

Finish times were:   Zachary 30:35, 5th out of 21 in his age group.  Sydney 32:34, 5th out of 10 in her age group.  Great run everyone!!! 

Zack went straight to a soccer game after this race and he scored his first goal of the season!  He was really having a great day.  :)