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!

Run Like a Turkey 50K

Yep, that's right - a 50K.  I had made the suggestion that we sign up for this race.  It is the first ultramarathon for Toledo, and it's just right down the road from our house.  Granted it was only 3 weeks after the Columbus marathon, but I figured we would be all healed up by the time it arrived.  I was mostly correct - except both Alan and I had done very little running since Columbus to avoid injury and to heal up a little more.  I am still having a pain in my glute and he is battling plantar fasciitis.  

Which brings us to the day.. the BIG day... the 50K.  The thought of running 31 miles would have been unheard of for me a few years ago, or maybe even last year, but I was feeling adventurous this year and wanted to end the running season on a high note.   

Our race was limited to only 62 people.  Here are the lucky few at the start of the race.  As you can see, the weather was ideal - 48 degrees at the start.  We set our watches for a pace of 10:30, which would get is in around 5 1/2 hours.  Sounded very do-able.

 Here we are leading the pack!  haha, ok, here we are, but certainly not in the front of any large number of people.  I seemed to be the 10:30 pace group for quite a while, but eventually we thinned out to the point that we could not see any runner in front of us, or even behind us.

 Most of the course looked like this - just a few flags pointing out the correct course, but most of it covered completely in leaves.  Although it made it quite serene, it also made it impossible for you to take your eyes off the ground for any amount of time for fear of running into something like a tree root.

 Speaking of tree roots, both Alan and I took 3 falls each, which ended up being total face plants due to those hidden dangers.  The second fall made me start crying - not so much because it hurt, but because I was so darn frustrated and tired.  Not good since that was only around mile 12.  I had those three falls between the miles of 8 and 13 miles.
Here is one of the aid stations.  Those were really nicely stocked - with oranges, water, gatorade, GU gels, and most importantly, clean Porta-potties!!  Trail running was quite different from road races because people actually stopped at the aid stations and hung around for a few minutes without worries.

Here are some shots of Alan and I going into the half way loop of the trail.  We finished half (15 1/2 miles) in 2:44.  Not too shabby!

I think it was a bit after the half way mark when things started going downhill.  My glute started feeling like it was on fire.  Ouch!  Some walking was needed.  After many more miles, the ache in my glute was actually starting to go numb, and my knees started causing a lot of pain.  Lots more walking was needed.  I even started walking downhill backwards to avoid pain in my knees.

Here is a shot of the trail.  Less leaves, but more ruts in the ground. 

Cool looking wasteland portion of the race course. 

 After 3 1/2 hours it was obvious we were not going to hit that 5:30 finish time.  In fact, the 6 hour finish time slipped away too!  Oh well, we were doing the best we could do (actually Alan could have been running faster, but I was giving it my best!).
FINALLY, we approached the finish line.  Didn't seem like that was ever going to happen!  Our finish time was 6:25.  We weren't the first ones in, but we certainly weren't the last ones either.

This is a funny turkey sign they had at the finish line.  Outside of a chipmunk, butterfly, and bug in my eye, we didn't see any wildlife!  Well, really there could have been dancing elephants in the woods, but I didn't dare stop staring at the ground for fear of falling again!!

We got these cool finisher medals.  The yellow arrow looks just like the trail markers. 

The winners of the race got these shiny platters.  It was nice because even though we were so far behind the winners (3:45), there were still people hanging out at the end, cooking burgers and chatting.  We made some new friends, enjoying some beers and scarfed down some delicious cookies.

Ahhhh, a cold celebratory beer!  So happy to be done. And still able to walk!  :)  So glad Alan was there with me for this race.  Without him I probably would have called it quits at the 20 mile aid station!!