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.  :)

 

Redemption... Cleveland Marathon

Cleveland Rocks!

Today was the Cleveland marathon.  This was to be my "redemption" marathon from the failed BQ attempt at Glass City 3 weeks ago.  At first I thought maybe it was too soon, but as the 21 days passed I felt rested and pretty well prepared for this race.  I ran 2 long runs of 13.1 in between the 2 events and some other runs   between 3 - 6 miles on the other days.  All signed pointed to YES for running this race because 1) Alan's friend (the race director!) got us free entry to the race and 2) I used hotel bonus points for a free hotel room.  There was nothing holding me back.  I knew I would regret not giving it another try more than I would trying and failing again.

I set some realistic goals for this race... A. goal) get my BQ  B. goal) get a PR and C. goal) have a respectable race that I was proud of.  At Glass City I was filled with self doubt and lack of self worth.  I was saying terrible things to myself, like "I'm a loser.  I can't do this".  I read somewhere that I should never say things to myself that I would never say to a friend.    Good point!  I was totally heart broken after Glass City at the disappointment and I wanted to redeem myself.

Race day morning started at 5:00am, and I was actually up before my alarm went off at 4:58.  Breakfast, getting dressed, and lots of Body Glide and we were out the door at 5:45.  The temperature was already 64 degrees by the time we got to Cleveland.  It was only 15 mins away from our hotel, but I parked quite a bit away from the start, due to my panic that the traffic congestion would stop us from getting there before the 6am road closures. We walked probably a mile to the stadium where the Cleveland Browns play.  The start area was really nice because the whole stadium was open and there were clean, easily accessible toilets for everyone to use.

 

We got in line and the race started.  There were so many people that it took us 2:18 seconds to cross the start line.  The weather was in the 60's and partially cloudy for the 1st half of the race.  The first half of the race went pretty well.  We had a target pace of 8:51 and we hit that for the first 13 miles.  Alan was a wonderful pacer.  I see him doing that officially in a future race!  However, I was already overheating and I took off my tank top around mile 6.  Wearing a sports bra is going to make for some lovely race photos!!  Luckily I had my sunglasses on so I wouldn't have the double whammy of a flabby gut and terrible face expressions.  With the tank top removed I felt a surge of new energy.

We made our way back into town where the people running the half were to break off.  Right at that time the 3:55 pace group caught up with us.  They had been running behind us the whole way, so that was a bummer.  I was a little concerned about really bombing the last half because on my last training run, I ran a fast 13.1 miles which felt great, but when I got near the end of my run I felt like I couldn't run another mile.  As the 3:55 pace group passed, Alan commented that we needed to keep up with them.  Ok, a good (and obvious) plan.  Unfortunately it seemed like the pacer dude was sprinting!!  I know he wasn't, but he was steadily creating a gap between us.  After about a mile I let the reality set in... goal A was not going to happen.  No problem, I still have other goals.  

At that point the goal was to at least get a PR.  No problem because those goals were 5 mins apart and I had time banked for that.  By this point the sun came out and it was baking me.  We had a long, long stretch of road with very little shade.  I kept up with goal B until around mile 17.  That was when that little voice in my head said... just walk.

I couldn't hang on any longer.  I had to walk.  It was really just pure exhaustion and the hot temps that were stopping me.  We decided that we were not going to worry about a time and just have fun.  After we got off that long stretch of road we went into a very pretty park setting.  We took numerous walk breaks and had the shade of trees to help us along.  At the water stops we enjoyed lots of water and Powerade.  The water stop people were spraying us down with their garden hoses and we started dumping water on our heads.  Ahhhhhhh 

Alan and I had lots of laughs about the way our race was turning out.  I felt like part of the group because everyone around us was doing the same walk/run plan.  We were actually having a really good time now that the pressure of a time constraint was gone.  I ran as much as I could, but the walk breaks were plenty.  At one point I thought I saw a photographer, so I picked up the pace and put on a good show, only to find out he wasn't an official photographer.  When we did see the real photographer we put on quite a good show, breaking into a quick run.

 

Around mile 20 we hit another long straight road and we saw two runners laying by the side of road being treated for what looked like heat exhaustion!  By mile 22 we notice there was another runner who was on the same run/walk schedule as us and we had a conversation with her.  She also was making it a fun run, and had run the last 3 Boston marathons like Alan.  We had some laughs with her and eventually she left us around mile 25.  The temperatures were in the lower 80s at this point and I would have given $20 for an ice cube!

 

Alan suggested I put my shirt back on for the finish line and I did.  We began our final mile to the finish line.  That was stopped again when I had to walk at 25.5, but I did manage to run the very final part where all the crowds were waiting.  For about the last 5 miles I had very sore glutes and it was painful to run.

We "sprinted" into the finish line with big smiles on our faces.  We did it!!  4:16.  Not surprising, they were not handing out any space blankets at the end to warm the runners, but they did have popsicles and ice cold chocolate milk.  Delish!!!!  We made our way to the beer garden and sucked down a Miller Lite.  Who would have known, it tasted good too.

Whoa... I wish I would have applied some self tanner before the race.  I look like ghost!!!!

 

After making our death march back to the car, we were happy to have run together and shared the experience.  Would I run this race again?  Maybe.  It was a very well organized race and for the most part it was pretty scenic.

Here are my splits.... can you tell when I started to fade, I mean, burn up in flames??   :)

1	9:20
2	8:31
3	8:51
4	8:45
5	8:44
6	8:59
7	8:46
8	8:50
9	8:48
10	8:52
11	9:06
12	8:56
13	8:25
14	9:17
15	9:13
16	9:24
17	9:18
18	10:37
19	9:45
20	10:06
21	12:05
22	11:43
23	11:33
24	11:25
25	11:30
26	11:42
27	9:20

Glass City Marathon race report

Well, what can I say about this race... I swear this race was jinxed from the start.  First, there was a bit of a drama going on with naming the beer that was served at the race.  It started as a friendly little Facebook competition.  I had submitted about 6 or 8 names, and all of my names were up for voting.  Alan submitted a couple choices also, and his made the final round.  Finally it was down to the finals and my "Glass City Glory" was up against Alan's "BQ Brew".  Voting was going along fine until we realized a third choice was going to overtake both of us unless we combined forces.  All votes were redirected to Glass City Glory, and at 10am on a Friday an email went out announcing it had won.  Woohoo!  Apparently the Facebook poll was not able to be turned off, and the other competitor (26.2 Brew) kept getting votes after the decision and he declared that he had won instead.  Jabs went back and forth for weeks. He was a sore loser.

Then, race week arrived.  Early forecasts showed a great day - although maybe even getting a little warm, with sun and a high of 60 degrees.  Perfect!  But, the day before the race, the forecast changed to rain with escalating percentages of rain.  boooooo

Instead of the pre-race tradition of watching Run Fatboy, Run, we watched Prefointaine.  Don't get me wrong, the guy was an awesome running and a legend to look up to... but he certainly wasn't a marathon runner, and just because he can break world records at the 5K, I sure can not.  And the ending of the movie (oh you know, the one where he dies in a car crash!) was a bit of a downer too.

But we did enjoy a yummy pasta dinner at Carabbas while the kids spent the night at friend's houses.  So, moving on to race day... we started our morning early, around 5:00am.  Plan was to get out the door before 6am, and we actually did that.  My outfit changed from tank top to t-shirt and hat to keep the rain off my face.

We parked in a small lot at UT, near the Law building and ran into my friend Carol, who hadn't even planned on running the half marathon until she got "race fever" at the expo and bought someone's bib (the half marathon has been sold out for months).  Waiting for the starting line we also saw several friends, former co-workers, and neighbors.  Everyone was in good spirits despite the drizzle.

When the gun went off, we weren't quite where we needed to be in the corral, but we got started about 2 mins after that and took off.  I honestly can't remember much of the first 7 or so miles. It was a nice run through Ottawa Hills neighborhoods.  Some quite ritzy.  We kept up with my friend Kristen who was running her first half.  She appeared to be breezing through it.  After got into Wildwood park, the half marathon split off and we heading out on the bike trail.  Alan helped me keep my pace, which was all detailed in a specific plan.  The plan was kind of bell shaped, starting out a little slower and having 14 miles of 8:51 pace.  No big deal huh?  He also carried water for me, so I wouldn't be tempted to walk through the water stops.  What a sweetie!
Around mile 11-13 we went out on King road.  I wasn't looking forward to that point.  It wasn't really too bad, but I was in need of more energy so I put on my headphones and jammed some music.  We wandered around Sylvania, and then headed into Olander Park.  We were pretty soaked by now as the rain hadn't stopped.  Luckily it wasn't a downpour, and it was not windy, so for the most part it kind of kept up refreshed. 
Coach Alan said we were pretty much on track until around mile 16.  That's around the time I lost interest in being successful :(  Miles 17-19 were on Sylvania Ave, on a small sidewalk, and with the traffic still there I remember it being pretty dreadful.  Finally we got back into Wildwood park.  I was looking forward to that part of the course, knowing that the end was getting close, but I really didn't have much energy to continue at that point.  I should have taken 3 gels by that point, but I only took 2 and had no interest in taking anymore.  I got passed by a friend who had been shadowing us the whole way, and that felt pretty disappointing.  He was not having as hard of a time as I was.  I think it was somewhere in the park (miles 20-21) I decided to walk a little.  It wasn't much, because I knew it would take forever if I continued to walk, so it was just enough to catch my breath.
As the mile dragged on I was hoping someone would just offer me a ride to the end :)  But eventually, I got there, and there was no way on earth I was going to sprint through the finish.  I just made it a point to smile, lift my knees (so it didn't look like I was sloshing through it) and get it done.
Finish time was 4:00:23. 
I was totally heartbroken to see that I not only didn't get that BQ that I had been training for, but I also was so close to getting a sub 4 hour race.  UGGGGGH.  I was shaking and we needed to get some food.  We hobbled over to the food area and grabbed a beer, and a cookie.  Jennifer met us there and gave me a supportive hug.  She could tell I was pretty bummed.  In fact, everyone could tell because I was bawling. And shaking even worse.  A volunteer came over to ask if I was OK.  I looked up at him with big sobbing eyes and answered YES.  I guess that wasn't too convincing because he brought back more of his medical volunteer friends.  They checked my blood sugar level.  It was 120, so it was OK.  But the purple lips and shaking was not good, so they took me to a golf cart.  The whole time I was saying "but my husband won't know where I am!!  He's getting a beer!!".  Luckily he did catch up with me, but he had to walk to the tent.  There was no room on the cart :(   We got checked into the tent, which was nice and warm.  I did enjoy that.  I laid there for about 15 minutes and ate some food.  Eventually I came around and was looking much better. I  was allowed to leave.
We headed straight back to the beer tent for another Glass City Glory.  We toasted to a sucky race and had some food.  On the way home we noticed Alan had been given a half marathon medal, instead of the full.  Seriously???  Wow, what a race I'd like to forget.

Boston Marathon, Patriot's Day

Our Patriot's Day started early, and we made our way over to Hopkinton State Park to drop off Alan. The park is so convenient to drop off runners for the marathon, I love it.  No downtown parking hassles, and we got to pass by a row of buses on the expressway who were transporting runners in from downtown.  Drop off was at 7:30 and it was a little chilly, but a very pretty sunny morning.

Good luck Alan!!

 

 

After drop off, we went to the half way point of the race, Wellesley.  We set up camp along the curb and went back to the car for a few hours of magazine reading (me) and DS playing (kids).  Around 11am we went out to the street to cheer on the wheelchair participants and elite runners.  I got to see Kara Goucher, although she was at the back of the elite pack at that time.

Finally, Alan made his way past.  He was looking good!

Since I was in charge of the DSLR camera, Zack got to be the cheering section (loud cowbells and yelling) and Sydney ran the iPhone so we could get some video.  Here it is....

 

We stayed around for a little while longer and saw our other friend Berenice go by.  Go B, Go!!! (she is in the pink visor)

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to make our way down to the finish line.  The subway was crazy packed!!  We had to wait almost an hour to get on the subway train.  Every train that stopped was overfilled, but finally I just said "come on kids, we are getting on this one!!!" and we squished on it.  It was terribly tight fitting, but we made it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan finished in 3:09:19.  That's a pace of 7:13!!  That is smoking fast.  That is also his best marathon yet. Woohoo!!  He was one happy man indeed.  And the best part, he was not even hobbling *too* much, he could walk!

 

By the time we finally made it to the finish area, it was around 2:30 and we hadn't even eaten lunch yet, so the first thing on the agenda was to get some food.  We decided to go eat in Chinatown. 

As we were walking that direction, we were passed by several emergency vehicles.  First a police car.  Then an ambulance, and then a fire truck.  We had to plug our ears because the siren noise was so loud as it passed us.  That couldn't be good.  What could it be?  Someone has had a heart attack at the finish line??

 

 

 

And that's when we got the text.. as we were walking out of the family meeting area.. "Explosions at the finish line?? WTF?"  Hmmm, that was very odd indeed.  At first we thought maybe it was a celebration cannon that had gone off, or maybe something else had misfired. 

We got to Chinatown and started checking out the news and seeing what had really happened.  We made many texts, and phone calls letting everyone know we were OK.  In some cases, this was the first time our friends/family had even heard about what was going on.

After a few tries we finally found a good Chinese restaurant (one that didn't have fish heads or duck feet) and relaxed for a little bit, all while keeping up on the news.  We learned that two bombs went off, at 4:09:44 on the race clock and another around 20 seconds later.  3 people were dead, and hundreds of people were injured.  Many needed amputations.

 

 

After lunch we started walking around, but of course we got a little lost and at one point we passed a hospital.  There was a SWAT team there, and lots of people, who were probably trying to find loved ones, and of course news crews.  The subway was shut down so there was nothing left for us to do but just go inside and wait.



 

We went to the Sweetwater Tavern, where we were supposed to meet some friends, but we only got to see 2 people since the city was on lock-down and everyone was supposed to stay inside.  Around 7:30pm the subway reopened, and we got out of that place!  The kids did really well considering they had seen the media coverage of the bombing at the bar.  It was pretty much impossible for them not to see the video, which played on repeat all night long.  Luckily they did not really understand it had happened so close to us, and mostly that someone was trying to kill people.

 

When we got back to our hotel and the kids were asleep, we finally got to watch the news and see the horrific details of what had happened.  Most of our runner friends had finished before bomb at 4:09, but a few did not and were stopped mid-race.  My heart goes out to all of the families there have suffered, both physically and mentally from this event.  We will be back again... you have not stopped us!!

 

 

 

Boston Marathon, day 2

Today is Sunday, so it's our "tourist" day.  But before we go into downtown Boston, the kids ran a race on Heartbreak Hill.  Heartbreak Hill is the last of a series of races in the Boston Marathon in Newton MA.  What makes this hill so hard during the race is that it comes at around the 21 mile mark and it is a gradual incline for a half a mile.  Thus, the race is half a mile up the hill, and back down.  They staged this race so each birth year and sex was a group.  So here is Zachary lined up with the other boys from 2005.

When he got done running he said it was "hard"!  His time for the mile was 8:55.

Sydney is right in the middle, pink shirt and striped skirt/leggings.

She looked strong at the finish!  Her time for the mile was 8:21.  Great job by both of the kids.

We hopped on the T and headed to downtown.  Our first stop before the expo was the finish line.  We got some good pictures of the finish area.

At the expo we ran into a couple of friends and all discussed the topic du jour - shorts or capris? tanks or t-shirts? what is your pacing strategy?....

Dean Karnazes was at the expo.  That was pretty exciting to see a running "celebrity"!  In retrospect I should have gotten MY picture taken with him.  The kids got a poster signed.

After the expo we headed to the pre-race carb loading dinner that they put on for the racers.  This was a pretty good deal - a free meal for us!  It was a delicious meal of pasta, sausage, salad, Sam Adams 26.2 beer, and a huge goody bag of dessert treats.  We will definitely do this again.

After another long day in the city, we headed back home and rested.  Alan got read for the race and realized he left his pace band someplace (at home maybe??) and we needed to make a new one.  Good thing we had all the accessories to make a new one.

Boston Marathon 2013

Well Happy New Year!  I can say that, even though it is April because it has been that long since I last posted.  Tsk tsk tsk!
Anyhoo, here is the story of our trip to Boston for the Boston Marathon.  We hit the road bright and early Saturday morning around 3:45am.  Our trip took 13 hours and for the most part it was uneventful.  We switched off driving every 3 hours, so that wasn't even too bad.  I'm not sure the kids even cared about the trip because they watched movies, read books, and played way too many hours of video games.
Our first stop in town was the American Girl store and the Lego store.  Both kids have been saving up their money and spent it well.

Sydney picked out the doll of the year, Saige.  She is cute! 

This sign made me laugh!  Love that facial the doll is getting :)

Over at the Lego store Zachary picked out this humongous Star Wars set.  $140.  whew!!  He wanted to buy an iPod Touch, but was quickly won over by this beauty.

After shopping and a stop at the hotel we went to dinner at Polcari's for some yummy Italian carb loading. 

After dinner we drove downtown to meet our virtual friends from Runner's World. 

We actually found a parking spot downtown for $10, so that wasn't too bad.  It was fun to meet all of the people I have been reading about and chatting with.  The kids were troopers and spent the whole night playing games on the iPhones :)  We headed home around 9:45 and were exhausted when we hit the beds.  What a long day!!

12-12-12 12K!

Toledo Roadrunners club puts on some fun runs here in town.  This one was the 12-12-12 12K, starting at 12:12am!  I had not intended running this originally, until I got a msg from my dear friend Carol a day before the event.  I invited Jennifer to run, and she thought it sounded fun too.  So I zipped over to the mall, got us signed up and secured our commemorative glow in the dark event t-shirts.

 

Here is a shot of the Second Sole running shop where the run started and ended.

 Here are us dedicated runners, Jennifer, me, and Carol, just after midnight.  Yawn!

 Happy as clams right before the race started.  Brrrrr, it was really cold out.  I really miss not having the sun out!

 Right on time!

 This is the only "action" shot I got of us running.  Then my camera died because the battery drained quick in the cold.

We finished in 1:16, a new PR for all of us :)  We even ran into my old boss Kevin, who enjoyed the run with some of his friends.  Around 2am I got home, and crawled into bed.  That 6:50am alarm came too quick for me the next morning!

 

Elf on the shelf

Our elf was caught being a naughty boy last night!!

 

We also found him reading one of the December Daily books the other day.  He was looking at pictures of himself in the book from last year!

 

And another morning, we found him having lots of fun with the "reindeer" team. 

 

Wonder where he will show up next??

 

 

 

A final note on a trail run...

Look at my dirty feet from after the 50K race! Yes, I did have shoes on during the race and they were even "trail shoes", supposed to be a little more rugged and less "thin" than my normal running shoes. Wow!