Pancakes and Jam

Running has been postponed

2009-01-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged about this because I wasn't really sharing the news yet. But I am not running right now, therefore not posting, since I'm pregnant. The doctor has recommended against it, and quite frankly I can't just be a casual runner. I get very competitive with myself and OCD about mileage. So until the little one graces us with his/her presence, the blog will be quite.

Happy running to you though!

I am George Constanza

2008-09-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

There's an episode of Seinfeld where a woman is about to breakup with George and he denies her the breakup. I think I've officially turned into George Costanza. Running is trying to breakup with me. The Human Race 10K in Austin was its greatest attempt at ending the relationship. And even though it was my worst 10K time ever, since I'm still getting back into the swing of things and wasn't supposed to run hills yet and am apparently full of excuses, I finished! I said I would finish and I did. So then the following Saturday I went out for a run with Allison and Marissa and I felt great! I finally felt like I was getting back on track and would really be ready for the half marathon in November. And then Sunday rolle around.
I made it out to run with the Fleet Feet group, which is always a good kick in the pants for me. Felt good as I made it up the first hill and into the first mile. Then BOOM out of nowhere the road jumped up and grabbed me and I fell. Ok, maybe I tripped on a pothole but either way I fell. But I got up determined to finish four miles if it killed me, which it apparently was trying to do.
In any case I'm winning the no breakup fight and plugging along. Wish me luck a I keep trying to make running love me.

It's so empty!

2008-08-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I went through my nifty Runner's World calendar to sort of see how poorly the year has shaped up to be.
I tell you what I have too many months with NOOOO numbers on them. Between getting the flu of death in February and then being completely unmotivated to run after that, followed by these last five or six weeks off, my calendar looks pathetic.
It's so sad since I came so close to running 1,000 miles last year and completing 12 races.
Oh well, I guess everyone has bad years :)

Yes, I know it's August

2008-08-18T14:21:00.001-07:00

Although you wouldn't know that from looking at my calendar. It says July. I haven't changed it over because it's depressing to move to another month when I have so many blank square staring at me in the face. I use my calendar to keep track of my mileage. Every time I get a new pair of shoes, I change the color. So if you came into my bedroom and saw my awesome runner's world calendar covered with random numbers, you now know they stand for miles. But alas I haven't logged any miles in FIVE weeks. I can't bare to flip over to August because it too is filled with lots of blank squares.
But at least I can start changing that a little bit. I got my new orthotics on Friday!!! HOORAY!!! And ran my first two miles on Saturday. I totally kicked track butt. Yes, I'm running on a track. My doctor wants me to avoid hills. So until i get past three miles (maybe 4) I may have to stick to the track. I'm hoping 4 won't be terribly boring since I have an iPod and I have a watch that counts laps.
So tonight when I get home I'll finally flip to August and write in a BIG number 2.
I'm back on my way to 13.1 in November!

Once again...

2008-08-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

I've been putting off this post for a few weeks as you've probably noticed by my lack of posting. I am, once again injured. Only this time I've been out for four weeks and it looks like I'll be out at least one more week. Sigh.
I have tendentious in my ankles again. This time it's much worse and I have to get new orthotics. I've been fitted for them already and now I'm just waiting. As soon a they come in I have to get cortisone shots in BOTH ankles YIKES!!
So until then I'm swimming like crazy. At leat 40 minutes everyday, in hopes of keeping my endurance up. Of course all of this comes from my own insanity. I know I had already talked about running the half marathon in hopes of a P.R. But once I started training with my usual group the overachiever in me took over and wanted to run the full 26.2. So I started training for it. Too many miles too quickly on too many hills and tada! Tendentious :(

So I'm back to training for 13.1. Hopefully I can get back on my feet and out of the pool soon!

You can take the girl out of the competition....

2008-07-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

Part of what I enjoy about running is that I can really enjoy it. I think I've said this before, but I grew up in a fairly competitive family. My parents always encouraged us to do our best. Which my sisters and I always took to mean to be THE best. Winning was always the goal. Second place was never good enough. Mind you I say all this and I know that it wasn't that my parents thought that second place was horrible. It was that in my mind I HAD to win. Anything less was unacceptable. Which is why I spent many a state tournament in tears, feeling like a failure. But that's a story for another therapy session.

Running gives me great pleasure because I can just run. I'll never be fast enough to win my age category let alone the entire race. So I'm able to put it out of my mind and concentrate on beating my personal records throughout different runs. Last Friday my competitiveness, type-A, personality got the best of me. This was the day of the 4th of July 4 Mile run and I ran with Allison and M. The course was fairly flat so it was supposed to be a nice easy run. We started out at a nice pace and before I knew it we were at the 1 mile point at 9:50. I thought certainly that wasn't a mile. A turned to me and said: well we were going pretty fast..." I look back and realize yikes! I never prepared M for a 9:50 pace! The best we had done was a 10:30 minute pace on an all downhill run! So I back off and try to get a regular pace. Of course at this time I've already freaked out M's system. It doesn't help that she wasn't feeling well to start with and my crazy pace only upset her stomach that much more. We hit the 2 mile point at about 22 minutes or so. Because I'm never sure when to push people and when to back off, I decided to see if she was up for running. The big eyes and the shake of the head said absolutely not. Not yet. So we walked for a while, ran for a couple of minutes. Was just having a good time in general. That's when it happened: Crazy competitive Helen reared her ugly head.

One of the girls from work passes us. Mind you she doesn't say: see ya suckers! She just says hi and keeps her steady pace. But in my mind I'm thinking OH NO! She CANNOT beat me! And at this point I start having this internal drama. Part of me is saying: you're the reason your friend isn't feeling well. besides you got her into this running thing! Stay with her. The other part of me is saying: She CAN'T beat me!! Well as she starts to round a corner and is about half a mile from the finish line Crazy Helen takes over. I look at M and say: I'm sorry! I'll come back and finish with you again! But I can't let her beat me!" She said ok! go! So I begin to haul butt to the finish line. I think that's the fastest half mile I've ever run.
After crossing I start to head back to go find M. And I see her hauling butt to the finish line too!! I find her near the water and she says: I didn't want her to beat me either!
Turns out my craziness is catching. :)

Race Report/Training update

2008-07-01T14:47:00.001-07:00

Hello! Yes Yes I know! I have to get better about posting on a regular basis.
I did a relay half marathon a couple of weekends ago. After the fiasco that was the Beach to Bay marathon I was a little apprehensive about having to run with a baton again, even if it only was for 3.2 miles. I ran the last leg of the race so this gave me plenty of time to stress out about dropping the baton. So as I waited I played with my gatorade bottle and the label around it. Before I knew it I had made myself this nice gatorade label bracelet. So I kept playing with that. Then it dawned on me. I could use this to help me hold the baton!!! I simply wrapped it around my hand, slipped the baton between it and my palm and viola! I had a handy baton holding bracelet! It held the baton nicely in place, didn't bug me and I only had to keep my thumb lightly on it! So I did all 3.2 miles with no baton issues! Hooray!

(there's no good way to transition into the training part of this entry, so pretend I had some sort of great transition)

Training for both marathon teams seems to be going well. I still feel like I'm doing ALL the work for the work team, but I guess that's my own fault for not being able to say no to people. So my duties include mapping all the routes for the long runs, setting up water stops, sending out emails on weekly basis with training info oh, and let's not forget the fact that I developed both training schedules for the full and half marathon runners. So I'm feeling overwhelmed.
The good thing is I have a great group to run with on Sundays at Fleet Feet. Everyone is so much fun and encouraging and I don't have to do all the work :) My shoulder has been giving me some problems on long runs and bringing my pace down to 12 minutes/mile instead of 11 or 11:30 minute miles. Oh well. I've already run 7 miles and I'm only running the half so I should be OK come November.

I'm doing the "Freedom Day Four Miler" this Friday. So hopefully that'll be fun. And speaking of the 4th of July don't forget to thank the people you know in the military for giving us the freedom we celebrate. They are doing and have done amazing things for this country!
So I'll say my own special Thanks to my Dad, Larry and Dennis!

And we're off

2008-06-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

So I officially started training for the San Antonio Rock N Roll Marathon on Sunday. Yes, I like to write out the whole marathon name. There's just something fun about S.A. finally having a big time marathon! So this was week one of my being a "pace coach" which is going to be just as challenging as I thought, but it's still fun. Plus it's added incentive to keep my pace up when I know other people are counting on me.
This was also week 2 of the work team that I'm helping coordinate/coach/mentor/etc. And oh my goodness is that a lot of work. I mean I knew it was going to be work, but I have a whole new level of appreciation for the people who do this on a regular basis. I'm trying to make myself feel better by reminding myself that I'm also working a fulltime job while doing all this marathon coaching, but still, it's hardwork regardless.

That's about it on this front. I don't have any funny stories but I have new shoes! and well every runner knows how much fun new running shoes are :)
until next week....

Baton woes

2008-05-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

A Baton, according to Merriam-Webster is: a hollow cylinder carried by each member of a relay team and passed to the succeeding runner
A Baton, according to Helen, is the bane of my existence. Allow me to back track a little. When I was younger I used to have this terrible habit of dropping things and not realizing I did it. It's how I lost a couple of wallets. So now that I'm older and compulsive I've tried to make up for that and am constantly checking to make sure I have all my belongings. Of course I also carry a purse now so I won't have to worry about dropping something accidentally and not realizing it. This translates into hating to have things in my hands when I'm running. It throws off my entire sense of balance and all I can do is think about whatever I'm holding. Which is why during Beach to Bay I dropped the baton, not once, not twice, but FIVE times. I have a bruise to show for it. The last time it bounced up, hit my shin and I stopped, let out a loud expletive (sorry parents reading this) stomped over to the baton and walked for about 100 steps in disgust. If I was about 5 years younger I would have sat on the curb and had a fit. As it was I threw a pretty big fit anyway.
I did manage to finish in less than 48 minutes which was all I hoped for. Of course if I could have kept up my awesome pace for the whole time I would have finished in closer to 40 minutes, but I'll take 48 for this slow going time in my running phase.
I am glad I did the run though. It was nice to be in a big mix of runners, crossing a finish line, having someone hand you six medals (yes, I got all the medals for my team and none of them were at the finish festivities, so I have yet to hand those out) and just be in a race environment. It was good for my soles (haha, get it, soles?)
I do however feel like I'm back on track. Having someone to run with is very helpful. I've peer pressured Marissa Villa, one my friends and co-workers (yes, we're friends too--sorry that's an inside joke) into running the half marathon in the fall. I think it probably scares her more than I know, but I've promised I'll be there every step of the way for her. We did our first run together today. 3 miles in about 36 minutes. Not bad considering we were doing 3-2 intervals and I had to walk an extra time because I felt like the humidity was suffocating me.
In truth I thought about giving up running for a while. I spent 5 days at home in New Mexico during which I played tennis with my sister and had a really good time. I was sore in all the right places the next morning and though "hmmm, maybe I could join a tennis league, swim and do my cardio boxing this summer and forget running." Of course I'm already committed to helping two marathon teams (and I'm no quitter) and I've promised my friend I'd get her to the finish line. I can't let her down.
I'm doing this for her, right? In actuality I feel like Marissa's doing something great for me. Getting me back on the roads and enjoying it. Even if I am breathing harder than I'd like to :)

Making up is hard to do

2008-05-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever run into an old friend? Someone you used to be close to and you lost contact and it's been years since you've spoken. Maybe you go have coffee, you struggle for topics of conversation, it's awkward. And then maybe you try again. This time might not be so awkward you share stories about your life remember friends of old. That's if your lucky. If your unlucky it continues to be awkward and you can never rebuild that friendship. Fact is you've moved on, grown apart and have very different lives. That's sort of the place I'm at with running. I feel like we were estranged for a few months and forgot about each other. Forgot the feel of hitting the road together, the conversations we had, the problems we solved in our hours together. Right now it's awkward (meaning I find myself huffing and puffing and hating it). I can keep going to have coffee with my old friend or I can move on.
I'm determined not to move on. We have a big date coming up soon. The Beach to Bay relay marathon. There's always something great about races. The camaraderie with other runners, the rush you get from being in an organized race, the feeling of belonging. I'm hoping that this date will give me and Running the bump we need to become good friends again. Here's to hoping!

To the beach and beyond

2008-05-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

I've been having some trouble finding my rhythm since I got sick in February and was knocked off my running routine for three weeks. Now it's MAY and I still haven't been able to get out on the roads more than two days a week. I almost don't even look forward to my runs because instead of being "easy" I find myself struggling to find a groove and three miles seem like FOREVER.
I was hoping a run on Town Lake a couple of weeks ago would jump start my feet. Help me find my groove. But I've only run three times since then. Sigh.
I do however, only have three weeks until the Beach to Bay relay marathon. Which means I need to get up to the 4 miles so that the humidity and heat are the only thing I'm left dealing with, not the dread of 4 miles.
There's also this little matter of the Rock n Roll Marathon. I still haven't decided which event I want to run. The OCD, over-achiever, competitive side of me wants to run the whole 26.2. The sane, remembers that it may be 89 degrees, wants to set a P.R. side of me thinks I should run the half marathon. I could drop 10 pounds and run a 2:15 half marathon. Just writing 2:15 makes me think "hmm, maybe that could be the thing for me.
But for now I just keep looking at the marathon website, pulling up the route, looking at the registration page and imagining what I'll think in November once I'm in a corral ready to cross the start line.

I'm Back

2008-04-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back to posting after a brief hiatus. I've had a rough time getting back on the horse so to speak after getting my tush kicked by that virus a couple of months ago. It's as if all my drive/stamina/energy were wiped away in one. But I'm slowly but surely trying to work my way back up to 5 mile runs as my regular daily mileage.
My main motivation is that I am helping to train two marathon teams this summer. About a month ago the organizer of the marathon group I trained with last summer asked me to be a pace group coach this summer. I could not have been more thrilled. It seems like a great opportunity to get some slower runners out on the roads and to start learning how to plan/coach/mentor people. I'm also helping with the group from work. Since the Express-News is a sponsor of the San Antonio Rock N Roll Marathon and our publisher is the honorary chairman, we're hoping to have a great showing at the marathon this year. So a small group of us is in charge of putting together the team. It seems like a pretty big task though, since none of us are qualified marathon coaches. But I'm looking at this as putting together a lesson plan. For a 24 week lesson.

So for now I'm slowly getting back to pounding the pavement. Wish me luck!

Oh. Before I forget I found this cool/inspiring story!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7275861.stm

Reality Check

2008-02-13T17:12:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks for a few reasons.
For one I was amazingly sick for a few days. I had a virus that ran me into the ground. 102.6 degree temperature, chills, feeling like i was swallowing glass, lots of phlegm. The list goes on and on. I also lost 12 pounds of water weight in 4 days. Oh and I had pink eye. So I was down for the count for a few days.
This couldn't come at a worse time. The Austin Marathon is tomorrow. So this of course means I won't be running. Which is amazingly disheartening. Everytime I get an email update from the marathon folks I burst into tears.
The thing is I've been wanting to run the full marathon in Austin for 4 years. And I was finally ready. Sure the hamstring issue pull was going to keep me from breaking 5 hours, but I had run the hills, done the speedwork and even figured out the miracle cure for my ankles (Bikram Yoga). And then I got sick. It was a hard thing to have to admit that running wasn't going to happen. Everyone knows I'm a bit Type-A and admitting defeat is difficult. But I knew that all I would do is make myself sick again and well a marathon medal isn't worth being as sick as I was.
So now I'm going to put my mind on training for Rock N Roll San Antonio. There's also a half marathon in Seabrook, TX in March that I might do. Of course I haven't run in a few weeks so we'll see if that happens. I'm almost all the way healthy, so tomorrow I'm going to head out and see if I can run 3-5 miles. Wish me luck.
Oh and Brian and Michelle, Good luck in Austin tomorrow!!

Sometimes you come in last

2008-01-29T14:32:00.000-08:00

Saturday was the "Endurathon." A 25K race that I was told was "challenging." The word one person used was "punishing." Next time anyone describes something as punishing, I'm taking them at their word and not experiencing for myself. The run is pretty much 15.5 miles of uphill. And I think I would have been OK if I 1) hadn't have been dehydrated and 2.) my shoes didn't suck. I didn't get a chance to drink as much water as I should have, especially considering I was thirsty all day and I had been sick. Then at about mile 6 my toe started hurting from bumping up against the front of my shoe. Something I kind of experienced in Houston, but was able to ignore. My foot and dehydration were not to be ignored this time around. I did manage to finish the race (in a wretched time of 3:30). And hope to NEVER endure the Endurathon again. Oh, did I mention I came in last. Something I've never experienced, but I'm glad I finished.
Now it's onto concentrating on the Austin Marathon.
I think I'm going back to my old Asics. I might get a new pair in the next few days and break them in for Austin. The Mizunos I'm currently in also gave me shin splints. So It's back to my trusty Asics and back to hoping I'll be able to finish the Austin marathon!

Hebrews 12:1

2008-01-17T20:09:00.000-08:00

I see this at races a lot and want a shirt that says this

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Houston

2008-01-17T15:16:00.000-08:00

I have no snappy headline for this blog entry because in a word the Houston half marathon: sucked.
But before I start complaining: A big shout out and THANK YOU to my sister, Lizz who paid for my entry to the Houston Half Marathon. Lizz, you rock and I really appreciate all your support!!!
Onto the race report:
I managed to pull a hamstring and I'm still trying to nurse it. And since I'm supposed to run 20 miles this weekend to prepare for Austin, I'm a little bit worried. I think I might run 15 or 18, as much as my body feels ready for and just hope that's enough.
I am proud that I finished the race. At about mile 5 I started to feel the hamstring hurt and managed to sort of limp the last couple of miles in. The only reason I even ran the last mile was because I was determined to have a time better than 2:45. Someone I know and am not too fond of was recently bragging about his "GREAT" half marathon time of 2:45. Before Sunday my worse time was 2:30 and I'm pretty slow. So I was determined to have a better time than he did. I finished in 2:38:38. Not great, but respectable I guess. This was probably one of the only half marathons I've run in which I thought "now I know why people think distance running is so impressive." I struggled to finish, but I did it. Now I just have to get myself mentally ready to run another 26.2 and hope I can do it without injury.

I'm fairly certain I hurt myself going around slower runners and hopping up onto a curb or two. The thing is I KNOW not to do that. In previous races I even reminded myself that no matter what I wouldn't do that. For some reason in Houston I lost all control of my senses and did it anyway. Lesson learned.

But what was most frustrating about the whole ordeal is that the race medics weren't much help. Those along the race course told me: stretch it out. The medical tent at the finish line refused to help me because I wasn't "a medical emergency." I mean all I needed was some ice and someone to wrap my leg. It wasn't asking for an IV drip. Hopefully they'll take notice of what I wrote in my postmarathon survey and fix that next year.

I was happy to have someone to run with. Running with Jordan, who I haven't run with since Nashville in 2004, was really great. It's always nice to have someone to keep you going!

In other fitness news, I've started doing Bikram Yoga. It's the type of yoga where the room is heated and humid. The first class I thought I was going to get sick and pass out. In that order. But now I'm pretty addicted to it. I think the heated room has been good therapy for my pulled hamstring. I'm going to walk a few miles today after work and see how the hammy feels. Wish me luck!!

NY Times Article

2008-01-09T08:46:00.000-08:00

When I first moved to San Antonio and went to my doctor for a sinus infection I asked him about some ailments I was having. Mainly that my knees hurt a bit and I wondered if taking glucosamine would help the alieviate the pain. He said: you should stop running. The odd thing is that since I've lost weight and started running on a regular basis (remember those 876 miles last year?) my knees don't hurt anymore. It could be because of the weight loss. But the thing is I had knee pain in high school, weighed about 140 lbs and I was pretty active. I wasn't a runner, but I was active. And now that I'm a runner I don't have knee pain. Odd isn't it.
When I first started having ankle pain I went to a podiatrist who prescribed some steroids and said I shouldn't run so much. Then I found a doctor who is an athlete and well, he's slowly curing what ails me. It never dawned on me that you have to find a doctor who understands sport. I saw this article on the New York Times and I had one of those "ooooh!" moments.

We all knew it was coming...

2008-01-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

I did a lot of hemming and hawing over the Austin marathon: should I run the whole? would it be better to do the half? Maybe I should. Maybe I shouldn't.
When in reality I probably made up my mind about it a week after Marine Corps. But then tendinitis wouldn't go away. And then early registration passed. But I couldn't bring myself to just sign up for the half marathon. Then I got the drugs (e.g. cortisone shot) and my ankle feels A..Mazing! So on Monday Allison, aka pancakes, and I signed up for the full marathon.
Am I crazy? Probably. Will I hit the five hour mark I'm hoping for? Probably not. Will it be worth it? It always is :)

I did seven miles of speed work yesterday. I thought I was going to be sick at the end. That's a lot of sprinting! But it felt good overall.
This weekend is the Houston half marathon. Then I have a 21 mile run (which will probably only be 18 for me since my longest run since Marine Corps has been 15 miles.) Then an 8 mile run, a 6 mile run and then the marathon!! I'm completely jazzed!

This and that and 2007 wrap up

2008-01-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

My husband and I spent Christmas in Charlotte with my father in-law. And I tell you there is something fabulous about running in Charlotte. I think it's because I feel like I'm running through the opening scene of a movie: wet orange leaves on the ground, tree lined, pedestrian friendly streets. And if I plan my route right there are a few fabulous homeowners who have drinking faucets just on the edge of their lawns for passersby. It's really a runner's paradise. I even found this neat trail that runs by a river/stream/creek not too far from the F-I-L's house. What I always forget about are the hills. OH MY! If I trained there year round I'd have no problem come Austin marathon time!

On to other topics.
I finally tallied up my 2007 mileage. I know you're all in suspense wondering how many miles I ran. If you remember I hoped for 1,000 miles and wasn't going to be able to accomplish that as the days ticked down. I did however run 876 miles. I guess that's a respectable sum. I think I would have been happy with 900 miles, but I guess 12 races, 3 pairs of shoes and one awesome marathon medal to show for 2007 makes it no such a bad accomplishment after all.
I did however go out and run 5 miles today in hopes of making 1,000 miles in 2008!

Oh and I finally broke down and got a cortisone shot in my ankle. I tell you what that HURT! The shot itself didn't hurt, but about 2 hours afterward I couldn't walk around because any pressure made me want to cry. I actually convinced a friend of mine who recently had ligament surgery to lend me his crutches. But I swear that was like a miracle shot. I've been running completely pain free (and happy!) because of it. Which makes 26.2 in Austin more of a reality now.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Year long goals

2007-12-18T20:21:00.000-08:00

I had a goal of running 1,000 miles this year. I realized early in the month that I'm probably going to fall at least 100 miles short of said goal. But it got me to thinking about all the races I have fun this year. So I tallied them all up here they are in chronological order.
Cobweb Chaser 3 Miler
River Road Run 12 Miler
3M Half Marathon
AT&T Half Marathon
Capital 10K
Charlotte Race Fest Half Marathon
San Antonio Women's 5K
Marine Corps Marathon (OORAH!)
Turkey Trot 4 Mile Run
Mission 10 Miler

Well after doing this I realized, if I run two more races I'll have run 12 races this year. Which well, is a pretty good year if you ask me. So I looked for two races, which is how I came about the Tough Ombre 10K that I wrote about last week. Then I really had my work cut out of me finding one more race. Most of the Christmas runs were the same weekend as the 10K. I did however find ONE more run in Austin, the MADD Jingle Bell run. So John and I drove up there on Sunday so I could accomplish this small thing of 12 races this year. And I ended up having my best 5K time, well probably ever of 33:30. Which is pretty impressive if you figure most of my runs are about 11:30, except for my fluke 10K last week. It's even more impressive if you know that I was at the 2 mile point 24:00 into the race. I saw the clock and that WHAT THE?!?! I knew that the last mile was downhill, my ankle was feeling really good, so I decided to see what all I had in me and put it in high gear. And what do you know, apparently I can run a 9:30 mile (when going downhill).
So that was it, my best 10k and 5K times ever and I ran 12 races this year. I think when it comes time to close the books on 2007, I can feel accomplished and hope for 1,000 miles next year!

On a marathon training note: I had a really lousy run on Saturday. We were doing a hilly 10 mile run and at about mile 6 my ankle said "we're done" and I had to walk in the last 4 miles. I wrapped the ankle on Sunday for the 5K and had no pain. So I might keep doing that. I still haven't registered for Austin. I think I'm holding out hope that i can run the full marathon. We'll see

97, 98, 99, 100, 1, 2....

2007-12-12T05:52:00.000-08:00

(make sure you have some sort of snack, this is a long one :) )
I ran a 10K this weekend. Prior to Saturday I've done three 10K races in my time as runner and have hated every single one. My first 10K was the Capital 10K in Austin in 2004. It was while I was training for the Country Music Marathon and it was during our taper, meaning we had already run 20+ miles in training and 6.2 miles was supposed to be cake. It wasn't. The thing about the Capital 10K is that well it sucks. At least in my mind. It's usually at the end of March, so that means it's generally pretty warm and humid in Austin by then. And it's hilly. From about the first quarter of a mile until mile 3 you're pretty much going uphill the entire time and there's this quarter mile hill where you climb about 200 feet. Of course after mile three you get to go downhill, but by then I was completely out of gas. By mile 4 I lost my breakfast. By the finish I swore I'd do better next time. I think I finished in about 1:20
That same training season I ran the Fiesta 10K. This was a week before the Country Music and the day of a friend's wedding. Which also meant the morning after the rehearsal dinner. Which meant I stayed out too late and drank too much to run very well the next morning. I think this was one of the first runs that Allison and I ran together. And she too had stayed out too late and had too many libations. Together we were going to make quite the pair. So the Fiesta 10K goes along the San Antonio River on "Mission Trail" even though you don't see any Missions unless you go about 5 miles out. Unfortunately this means it also starts near the old Sulphur springs. Talk about YUCK. In some places you have to cross over the river, on these suspension bridges that bounce up and down, up and down as you cross them. But it's not just the two of us, it's us and about 10 other runners at a time going up over these bridges. It made me a little dizzy. Of course we crossed 3 of these bridges on the way to the turn around point, which meant coming back over them again. At about mile 4.5 I told Allison to leave me that I was done and was going to walk. It's safe to say that was not my best race. I have no idea what my actual time was on that run, I tried to forget as much of it as possible.
Earlier this year I decided to give the Capital 10K another go. After all it was the 30th Capital 10K and I was turning 30 this year. I hate that race. It was 2004 all over again, except I got sick at mile 5 not 4 this year. Ick. Time: 1:15.
But I saw a 10K scheduled for Saturday and decided to give it a go. I had just read the New York Times article on distance runners distracting their minds with cadences so I decided to give that a try. And about half a mile into the race I started counting 1, 2, 3, up to 100 and then I would start over. Next then you know I was at the 5K point in 32 minutes. My best 5K time is about 35 minutes so I was thrilled! So I kept counting and counting and counting. And finished (ready for this) in 68 minutes! Which for me is COMPLETELY awesome. It means I ran in less than 11 minute miles. I'm fairly surprised at how the simple act of counting really distracted my brain from the task at hand and let me go a little faster than normal. It's really sort of amazing. So I'll do the counting from now on. I wonder how it'll affect my time in Houston.

Very Interesting....

2007-12-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

Runtex has a blog called "Heard Around the Lake" I was reading it today and came across this little tidbit of information about the San Antonio Rock N Roll Marathon.

"Speaking of Rock ‘n’ Roll, a team from RunTex headed down I-35 to the Alamodome on Wednesday for an organizational meeting with local charities and other interested groups. RunTex will be heading all the training programs for Rock ‘n’ Roll and will run the runners expo along with Soler Sports of San Antonio. The course won’t be finalized until spring, but, according to Roger Soler, it will not start or finish in the Alamodome."

Which is interesting for two reasons. One I heard a rumor that RunTex is going to buy Soler Sports. And two I hate the idea of the race ending at the Alamodome. I know a lot of people got a kick out of seeing themselves on the jumbotron, but to go from the outside elements to this indoor HARD CONCRETE finish, is not my idea of ideal. Anyway just rumors, but hopefully the route change is true.

Photos...Finally!

2007-12-09T09:45:00.001-08:00

It just dawned on me that people might want to see photos from the Marine Corps Marathon. Here are a few with captions beneath the images

Here I am at the start line. Sure, I look excited but inside I'm thinking "What did I get myself into?!?!"

Another start line photo

Finally we're off! I'm not sure I'm in this photo, but John did such a great job of making a terrific start line photo that I couldn't not post it!

This is about mile 14, in the National Mall. I'm rooting through the backpack John is wearing trying to find my extra energy gels.

Showing off my medal, alongside the World's Greatest Husband!

This is just after crossing the finish line. I'm not sure what that face I'm making is supposed to say. The foil like wrapping is Mylar. It's the greatest thing in the world when you're freezing cold after having run a marathon. It kept me amazingly toasty. :)

This is the finish line area still. I saw this mango and decided I wanted a picture with the maraca shaking mango!! :)

Here we are on the metro on our way back to Alexandria where we were staying with my friend Rosie. I sure don't look like I just ran a marathon, do I?

Finally, a photo with me and the hostess with the mostest, Rosie!

NY Times Article

2007-12-06T18:34:00.000-08:00

Saw this article on the NY Times today.
Enjoy

.1 percent

2007-12-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

My father-in-law recently sent me an article from the Charlotte Observer that talked about how women are leading the way in running. That is to say more women than ever are lacing up their sneakers and running. And the number of women completing half and full marathons continues to increase. That in itself is a great thing considering less than 30 years ago women weren't even allowed to run the marathon for fear we'd do permanent damage to our reproductive organs. Thank goodness science and experience has prevailed.

One thing that caught my eye in the article is that the overall number of marathon finishers continues to increase. There were 590,000 half marathon and 410,000 marathon finishers last year. 10 percent and 5 percent increases respectively. Of course the number that always floats around in my head is 1%. They say that 1% of the population has completely a marathon. If you take those numbers and the current US population it's really only .1%

Which makes it a huge accomplishment. So is it that I can't be satisfied with knowing I'm in elite company? Why do I keep pushing myself even when I'm injured. Truth is I know the answer. I'm stubborn, Type-A, overly competitive, whatever you want to call it. I'm struggling right now to resign myself to the half marathon in Austin. To know that I've run a marathon this season and there will be other seasons. Right now my ankle says no to anything over 10 miles. But I keep putting off the decision. I keep thinking: I'll wait and see after this run, I'll wait and see after that race. Today it's: I'll wait and see how I feel after the 10K this weekend. (Yes, Allison I'm running the 10k)
I guess I'm just afraid of saying: I can't. I know it's more of "I shouldn't" but I have issues separating the two. It's difficult knowing that 2 months ago I ran a marathon and I felt great during it. I want to do it again and clock another P.R. (personal record).
In any case I'll see how the ankle feels after the 10k, and hopefully make a decision I can live with.

local columnist

2007-12-03T19:56:00.001-08:00

The health columnist at the Express-News wrote a pretty good column today about the Rock n Roll marathon.
I just thought I'd pass the link along.

Refreshed

2007-12-03T12:31:00.000-08:00

I spent Friday and Saturday in Corpus Christi. The paper sent me down there to photograph two high school football games. And while I'm still not loving photographing football, I welcomed the chance to head down south and run along the beach. So Saturday morning I woke up early and hit Shoreline until it hit Ocean Drive. I think I did about six miles, but wasn't terribly concerned with distance as much as I was with enjoying the run. Ever since Marine Corps I've had a tough time wanting to be out on the roads. Maybe it's because I didn't take enough time off before starting to train for another race, (I had 6 days of no running). Either way I was hoping to be refreshed physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. So I just ran until I felt like turning back.
I sat on the pier at Cole Park on my way back to the hotel and just took in the wonders that God has created. I mean here I was using the body He has given me to cruise along a body of water He created. It was one of those times where I felt like I was using my body for more than exercise, but instead I was using it as a means of pure worship, to help me appreciate all the glory God has given me and continues to offer me. I hope to continue to use running as worship time. Especially when I run alone, early in the morning. It seems like that is the best time to just be silent and listen for God's voice.

Long time no post

2007-11-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the brief hiatus folks. I haven't had much to say (or really the time to write it) lately. My ankle has still been giving me fits since the marathon. I finally went to the doctor, after taking a weekend off. I figured it was better to rest it than to keep running on it, not sure of what was really going on.
Turns out I have tendinitis, again. But this time in my LEFT ankle instead of the right. He readjusted my orthotics and told me to put heat on it. So I'm going to do that for a while.
I have to go down to Corpus Christi for work, so hopefully running down there will re energize my routine. There's a ten mile out and back route along Ocean Drive that I really like, so I may do that.
There is also a 10-miler on Sunday that I did last year and LOVED. So I'm going to see how I do on that one. After Sunday I'll reevaluate what I'm going to do for Austin. Right now my thinking is that I should only do the half marathon and give my ankle some rest. Especially since I'm doing the half in Houston in January.
But I really want to run the whole marathon in Austin. I really feel like that could be the run for me to hit five hours. And well I really want to hit that five hour mark. So I think two longer runs will really give me a good feel for what my joints can do.
So we'll see. Until then I've been doing some easy five mile runs. It's interesting as to how long of a distance five miles used to be for me. Now it's my regular Monday and Wednesday run! :)

95 Days and 368 Days

2007-11-13T18:18:00.000-08:00

95 days Until the Austin AT&T Marathon. And I'm so excited! I have my first training run with Run Gear Run on Saturday. They have a group listserv and that's already got me jazzed to run with the group. It's also awesome that they split people into pace groups and each group gets a set of coaches. Maybe, just maybe I'll get closer to 5 hours!

On a different marathon note. It's official. The Rock n Roll San Antonio Marathon and half marathon will be on Nov. 16, 2007! I'm so amazingly excited. The Country Music Marathon was a BLAST a few years ago. Very well organized, an amazing event, and the same group, Elite Racing, puts this race on. I'm so excited about this I can hardly sit still. FINALLY San Antonio will have a great race and we'll have thousands of runners and a great health and fitness expo. THIS WILL BE AWESOME FOR THE S.A. RUNNING COMMUNITY!!!

So for all you runners, or those of you who want to be runners, start training now! and come run the half marathon with me next November! If you think you can't do it, all I have to say is: OF COURSE YOU CAN! You just have to start by putting one foot in front of the other.

The Crash

2007-11-03T19:16:00.001-07:00

When I ran Nashville I learned a lot about what completing a marathon does to your body. About three days after Country Music I ended up with a cold, I felt real sluggish, had no desire to run, and (sorry I'm sure this is too much information) ended up with Aunt Flo for the second time that month.
After doing some asking around I found out this is all normal, all of it. So I was prepared for that after Marine Corps. What I wasn't prepared for was the crash.

One of the girls at work, who has also run marathons asked me on Friday how I was feeling. I said I was fine, no soreness anymore, feeling good overall. She said: No, how do you feel, emotionally? I said: Well, in truth I've been really cranky the last few days. In truth I had a lot of anger and frustration that seemed to be spewing from me every chance it got. She said I was probably suffering from Post Marathon Blues. This was completely new to me. I had never heard of this. No one had ever told me about this. And I certainly didn't think this had anything to do with the race.

What she said though makes perfect sense. You spend 6 months or so gearing up for this goal. And then suddenly you've attained said goal and it's all over, done, finished. I think it's probably aided by the fact that the runner's high is gone. It's one big crash.
I'm pretty much back to normal now, thank goodness, but today will also be my last "rest" day until the Austin marathon in February. I'm a little worried about that crash being worse, since at that point it'll have been nine months of training with a week off. But at least now I know what to expect and I won't think I'm going crazy this time.

The Marathon....overanalyzed

2007-11-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

I spent about four days thinking about what went right and wrong last Sunday. For those of you keeping score I came in 37 minutes slower than I hoped.
My first two miles were incredibly slow. The next couple of miles were too fast. I didn't take walk breaks the first 6 miles like I should have. I used too much energy too quickly. I wasn't hydrated enough at the start, despite spending the two weeks prior to the race taking in 4-6 ounces of water or powerade every hour. I lost sodium more quickly than I planned, which resulted in cramping and ended up having to drink 2 6-ounce helpings of partially dissolved, frothy, chunky bouillon cubes (the grossest thing I ever hope to willingly swallow**). The list of things goes on and on. But I think the major thing that kept me from reaching the 5 hour mark is going it alone. I had too many points in the race where being by myself worn me down mentally. Too many places where I just felt, well, alone. Which at mile 18 isn't a good way to feel.
Before the race a few people told me that running alone wasn't the best idea. But I had my head and heart set on running the MCM, critics be damned. And afterward I had a whole lot of people say that if I would have had a buddy 5 hours would have been easy.
So that's the plan now. To run Austin with at least one friend. It makes the miles go by quicker and it gives you something to be distracted with. And Allison is an awesome running partner anyway. Maybe this year she'll finally tell me what happened to the bunny....

(This is fairly gross so read at your own risk)
**A short aside about the bouillon cubes: You might be asking yourself why? Sodium is important as we all know. Without enough my calves started to tense up. So I finally found a medic tent and said I needed some sort of salt. This after forgetting to find packets to keep with me along the course. They hand me this cup of brown grossness. I look at it. Then look around. Then see the bouillon cubes and think ew. So I start to slowly drink. Only the chunks of undissolved bouillon are amazingly unappetizing to say it politely. So I say to myself, don't think about it, just drink. It's amazing what you can choke down if you don't let yourself think about it. Maybe that's how people drink eggs...
The whole bouillon thing is new to me. In Nashville the medics took a pack of salt, dissolved it in Gatorade and made you chug. Also gross. But this is what I was expecting when I went to the medics, not brown liquid. I'm not sure which is really worse, salty Gatorade or bouillon. Maybe they do bouillon so that it has more of a taste than salt. Who knows. Either way it was something I had to share with y'all.

Quote

2007-11-01T10:27:00.001-07:00

It takes enthusiasm to get started. It takes commitment to finish.

OORAH!

2007-11-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

I've had a few days to reflect on the wonder that was the Marine Corps Marathon. (Whenever I write the whole name I feel like I'm doing product placement) My reflections will probably be posted over a couple of postings so you'll have to bear with me.
I can't imagine having had better race conditions. It was in the low 40s when we started out and temperatures never got above 65. It was perfect, blue skies, a light breeze at random times throughout the race. Perfect.
The race began at the Pentagon, a building that up close doesn't seem as impressive as from a distance, but it's definitely neat to stand near an important structure. The race started on time (as expected when run by Marines) and it took about 20 minutes before I was able to cross the start line. My plan was to take in as much scenery as I could, look all around at every mile, over every bridge, whenever I saw anything that looked remotely important in our national history.
Eventually we crossed the bridge into D.C. and going over the Potomac and seeing the National Capitol dome in the distance as the water glistened below was amazing. Not too far in front of me was a gentleman carrying an American flag. It took me another mile before I was able to catch up to him, but then we ran a few miles together. The photographer in me was going crazy with ideas of photos I could be taking. Here was this man with a flag, as the sun shone through the flag, the tree leaves with their magnificent fall colors and the hordes of people that surrounded us as we ran down roads that otherwise are only open to cars. As we approached mile markers Marines stood by with megaphones shouting times. Every 2 miles Marines lined the roads handing out water and powerade yelling OORAH! and any other words of encouragement they could think to holler. The weather stayed perfect and the skies maintained a beautiful blue hue.
Allegedly we ran by the White House, but I never saw it. Maybe I had too much tunnel vision about my slow pace (more on that in another posting), either way I missed it entirely. Then the mall finally started to come into view. As we rounded the Washington Monument, and turned into the mall the museums and spectators lined the streets and the Capitol building was more than just a dome in the distance. This is when I first saw the greatest husband on the planet, John Henrichs, who was cheering me on like a mad man and had the biggest grin plastered on his face. How I love that dear man.
Suddenly I was running in front of the Capitol as the sun shined right on it. And across the way the Washington Monument. And in front of the Capitol and older woman ran back and forth waving a giant U.S. Flag. That was truly the greatest memory I have of running, ever. I saw John again at mile 14 and after that knew I was on my own until mile 23. I'd have about 2 more hours of alone time, not always good at this point in the race. We round the mall and started out toward the Jefferson Memorial. First we saw it from across the river, then we crossed the bridge and came up around the back side. Another beautiful moment. Eventually the huge number of spectators petered out. We ran next to the river for a few miles and I tried to take in the beautiful scenery, but after the mall, there wasn't much left to see.
My goal at that point was just to make it to "the bridge." The Bridge was the 19 mile point, we had to make it across the bridge, which is a section of freeway before 1:15 to avoid being swept up and not being allowed to finish because the road would have to be reopened. I saw the 19 mile marker and came running up onto the freeway and knew that no matter what I could finish now. It didn't matter how long it took me, it didn't matter what I hoped my pace would be. I knew I was going to cross that finish line. At mile 20 I knew that it wasn't up to my body anymore, now it would be up to my head and heart. I saw John and my high school friend Rosie at mile 21. Their shining faces as they both jumped up and down were the inspiration I knew I needed for this race. I saw them again at 23 and their energy lifted me again. Then came the harder miles.
As we crossed over a bridge near the Pentagon I saw a Marine holding a very large gun. This is when the reality of running so near the Pentagon finally hit me. Marines with large guns can do that I guess :) And then the crowds of spectators started to increase. And I could hear the crowds cheering and the announcer calling out bib numbers and names. Only I was at mile 24. I could see the finish line. It was just up a hill and across the median. I was there, but not really. I still had a 2 mile loop to go before I could climb the hill and claim my own personal victory. I have to say it's just mean to make people run PAST the finish line. But I suppose it's also a true test of strength, physically, mentally and emotionally.
Finally I saw the last .2 mile in front of me. The tape, that at other mile markers had read: Marine Corps Marathon, now said: Beat the Hill. So I was determined to. I started to move as fast as I could, passing people on each side and suddenly the finish chute was in front of me and I just wanted to finish. Which I did. In 5:37. Not perfect, not even what I hoped for, but I finished. And that to me is an accomplishment in itself.

Quick Update

2007-10-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the brief update, but I didn't want to keep people waiting until Wednesday for my Tuesday update (although it's late Tuesday).
In short the marathon was great. I finished! I got to see a lot of D.C. in a very unique way. And now I'll start training for the Austin Marathon that'll take place in February.
I promise a more detailed entry will come soon (hopefully tomorrow) about the race. But for now I'm still very sore and tired and turning in early.

It's Go Time

2007-10-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's not really go time, but I've always wanted to say that.
Today was my last "long run" before the marathon, all of eight miles. And I have to say that after runs of 16, 18, 20, etc. eight miles is a nice easy distance.
So I guess I'm as ready as I'm going to be for this.
Packing might not be as easy as training. The forecast seems to vary, from lows of 48-60, to highs of 60-78. Hopefully it'll be the lower of the two, which will make for EXCELLENT marathon weather. I need to make it over to Goodwill sometime in the next few days and buy a top or two that I can wear at the start of the race and be able to shed them along the race route without having to worry about losing a piece of clothing I love.

On a different note, but still marathon related, there is this neat feature on the
MCM website where you can track runners.
so if anyone wants to track me from checkpoint to checkpoint, I think you just have to know how to spell my last name. :)

Decisions decisions

2007-10-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't noticed running has become a bit more than a hobby. I tend to have an addictive/obsessive personality, which is why I don't drink, smoke or have any real vices. I'm afraid that they'll become addictions. Running has sort of turned into that. And while I'm careful to make sure it doesn't take over my life or become a true addiction it does sort of trump other activities at times.
Take my current dilemma. There is this play that Conexion wrote about last year. I've stayed in touch with the show's creator as she's tried to bring the production to San Antonio. Well it's finally coming. The only problem is that it's coming the day before the half marathon I was hoping to run in Dallas. So now i have to choose: the play or the run.
Part of me feels like I should do every run I can, because who knows how long I'll really be able to do these sort of races. Eventually life gets hectic and a marathon and 4 half marathons in a year is not reasonable. Heck, a single marathon and the time commitment it requires might not be at all an option in coming years. So I can't figure out what to do.
Usually I make decisions based on: someday am I going to look back and think "I should have done that instead of that."
Unfortunately this isn't one of those decisions that is that easy to make for some reason.
So now I'll sit and ponder this until after the Marine Corps Marathon, which is when I'll make all my plans for the remainder of the race season. In the meantime if anyone has any opinions on this, feel free to share :)

Marathon quote

2007-10-15T16:47:00.001-07:00

We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."
-Emil Zatopek

It's all relative

2007-10-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

Running these long distances seems to have changed my perception on shorter distances. For instance, I had to go to San Antonio Community College today. Normally I would park as close to the front as possible. I'd make at least 2 loops around the parking lot looking for something close. Instead I parked about two blocks away from the building I was heading to and made the short trip. Maybe it's just because the weather is FINALLY starting co cool down here. Or maybe it's because "far" is relative to me at this point. Either way, I'm glad that finding a close parking space isn't an issue for me anymore, because it definitely makes parking less stressful :)

It's getting hot in here....

2007-10-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

I ran my last training 20 miler on Sunday. I still didn't come in under 4 hours like I would have liked to have, but at least I didn't cramp up for the last 6 miles like I did the first 20 miler. (Shout out to Jennifer Hiller for helping me through the last 3 miles!) So now the taper begins. This weekend I run 12 miles, then the following weekend 10 miles, and then the marathon! I couldn't be more excited. Of course after the way things went in Chicago on Sunday, I've been obsessively checking the weather forecast in D.C. It'll only give me 10 days out, and the forecast calls for highs in the 70s, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for race day.
Yesterday people at work were wondering what the big deal is about 88 degrees and high humidity. "That's pretty normal for us..." "88 isn't even that hot."
Well of course it's normal in places like South Texas, Miami, Louisiana, etc. But most of the people who said this yesterday have never run more than a mile in their life, let alone a marathon. I'd like to think if you've been training in those sort of temperatures you're likely to be okay. But anything above 85 degrees is well, wretched, when you're running 26.2 miles. Heck, it's tough for me to run anything above 10 miles in that kind of weather. The sun beats down on you, the pavement reflects the heat back up at you, the humidity sucks out any fluid you have left in your system, and you're left cramping, sick, confused and falling down.
Training in San Antonio gave me a whole new knowledge of weather and the small difference a degree or two can make. I've learned the large difference in 68 degrees and 70 degrees. It feels downright chilly when it's 68 degrees, especially if there is a breeze and you're midway through a run. 70 can feel oppressive. I had a lot of training runs that began in 72 degree temperatures. Which is why I often started as close to 5:30 am as possible. It's still amazingly humid at that time, but at least you aren't fighting the sun too. 20 minutes after the sun comes up, it just keeps getting hotter. A breeze is a God send, and shade is your new best friend. I can't imagine 88 degrees.
The high in D.C. today is supposed to be 92. Yikes. But they promise a cold front is on it's way and they should be in the high 60s and low 70s by the end of the week. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Running Quote

2007-09-26T06:06:00.001-07:00

People ask why I run. I say, "If you have to ask, you will never understand". It is something only those select few know. Those who put themselves through pain, but know, deep down, how good it really feels.
Erin Leonard

Control

2007-09-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

I am fairly competitive, controlling, Type-A, whatever you want to call it. Growing up we were all competitive. So much so that when I ended up playing against my sister in a tennis tournament, my mother sat in the exact middle of the seats, didn't cheer at all, and left before the final point was played, because she didn't us to think she chose sides, because it was not a friendly match by any means.
So when I found running it came as a relief that I had found a sport where I didn't have to worry about winning. It was just something I could do for me. It's a great way to forget about whatever happened at work, because when you're 3 miles into a run on a nice day everything else sort of fades away.
Of course training for this marathon has made my Type A personality show through again. When I trained for Nashville in 2004, my goal was to finish. To simply make it through all the training runs and to cross the finish line. When I started running the half marathons I've been running recently, I had similar goals. But one after another I started comparing times. And now I find myself striving for a sub-5 hour marathon in D.C.
Of course to a lot of runners five hours is forever. I am of course, slow. And I have no problem with this, since in the end I'm only out there for myself. To prove that I can run another 26.2 miles. To get that medal that reminds me when you put your mind to it, nothing in life is out of reach. And to prove that I can do this under 5 hours.
Two weeks ago I ran my first 20 miler of this training season. It did not really go as planned. It took me about 4:15. Which was a huge let down considering I hoped to finish it under 4 hours, which would put me on pace to finish the marathon in my goal time. Granted the course we ran is fairly hilly. And it's still kind of toasty around here not to mention humid. But it's still disappointing.
I keep being reminded that race day is different. The adrenaline of all the other runners and of all the training paying off, kick in and put you in a different mind set. I certainly hope that's true. I'd hate to come back from D.C with a medal and a lot of disappointment.
This week I have a 12 mile run and the following week another 20 miler. I hope that one goes better. Four more training weeks until the Marathon!

Training, confirmation, and weather

2007-09-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

John and I went to Waco this weekend, so I did my long run Saturday morning instead of Sunday. My friend Allison was kind enough to wake up at 6:30 on Saturday to be support for me. She met me at the 7 and 9 mile points. Unfortunately I was pretty much done at the 9 mile point. I forgot to grab my ankle brace before leaving the house (in reality I have no idea where it is, and had to buy a new one on Saturday), but thought I would be okay because the route is relatively flat. Turns out I was wrong, and the brace is helping a lot more than I thought. I'm sure I could have finished out the 12 miles, but I'm trying to be smart about possible injuries.
Hopefully everything will be back to normal for Sunday's 20 mile run. The temperatures are supposed to stop dropping a bit, so cooler temperatures may mean an easier run.

There's only six weeks left until D.C.! I got my confirmation card emailed to me yesterday. Basically it's a form I have to print out and take with me to the race to get my race number and assorted goodies!

I looked online today to see historical temperatures for that weekend. The average high is 68, low 40. I'm either going to freeze or finish in a great time trying to finish quickly and get some warm clothes on! :)

Signs from the Lord

2007-09-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

Everything is difficult before it's easy. That's what the sign stated at a church along my 18 mile route on Sunday. It's rather poignant, don't you think? I mean here I was finishing up mile 15 and feeling really good still, especially knowing that one of my co-workers, Jennifer, would be waiting for me to run the last 3 miles with me. And suddenly here were these powerful words! It was awesome.
And in the end I ran the 18 miles in about 3:47. And I felt great afterward, no cramping, no feelings of total exhaustion. Just a great post run feeling. Jennifer even said that I didn't look like someone who had just ran "a bazillion miles."
And this run was so much easier than last week. Part of it was the fact that the temperature dropped a bit. In fact there were points in the run where I was a bit chilly (lots of sweat and a cool breeze will do that). I really felt like I cruised the whole way. I made sure to refuel at every other water stop with a Gu. Took in the right amount of fluids. And used my walking breaks to my advantage. In fact, I don't think I took any unplanned walk breaks and I made sure not to skip any (I think skipping some has worn me out prematurely some runs). For the first 14 miles I did a solid 5:1, then the rest I did a 4:1 which was my plan.
I was able to make it up hills that I previously had to walk. The whole run felt amazing! I don't know if it was the fact that I went to sleep at 9:30. Or if it was because I know the marathon is only (gulp) 7 weeks away. Or if seeing the elevation chart made me want to charge up each hill that I faced. But something really clicked this weekend.
I go down to 12 miles this weekend and then up to 20 the weekend after that. Hopefully I can keep up this amount of energy and this attitude for the next 7 weeks. I can't wait for D.C.!

Drumroll please

2007-09-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

I ran a totaly of 112 miles last month!
And had to buy new running shoes because of it. I haven't had a chance to total my mileage for this training season, but I'm fairly certiain it's more than 300 miles. And you're supposed to replace your shoes every 300-500 miles. This is really unfortunate because my shoes certianly don't look used and ready to be replaced. Yes, I've had a few times where I've had to run through mud. And then there were all the rainy days this summer. But other than that they look like shoes that are three months old, not shoes that need replacing.
Oh, well though, it's the price I pay for being so dedicated to training. :)

The countdown

2007-08-30T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Austin Marathon website is stressing me out. They have a countdown that not only counts the days until the marathon, but the hours, minutes and milliseconds. MILLISECONDS? Are they kidding me? Because telling people that there are only 170 days left (as of today) isn't enough, to count milliseconds? I mean they don't even list your race time in milliseconds. It's hh:mm:ss.

On a different note, I registered for the Houston half marathon today (Jan. 13). One of the girls I ran Nashville with lives there and asked me to run with her, so I'm on board. This is also in the event of the MCM not going as well as I would like. I hear it's always good to have a backup race ready.

Sometime in October I'll make a decision about Austin. I really feel like part of the running community now. I can tell that race season is about to begin and I am trying to figure out which half marathons I'll do this spring! It's really exciting!

First Glance

2007-08-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

I just had my first look at the elevation chart for the Marine Corps Marathon. They had yet to post this year's chart and only had last year's online. I looked at it and panic set in. OK, OK, I freaked out. The first THREE miles are uphill, with mile 2.5 to 3 being a 150 foot climb. Then we go downhill for two miles and start climbing again until mile 8. Elevation climb from mile 7-8: 100 feet. Then downhill again and a relatively flat course until the last 1.2 miles which are all uphill again.

I was a little worried about the course having looked at last year's maps. Now I'm scared. It's not even so much the uphills because we've been doing some good hill training this summer. Although I will say from now on I won't curse the hills, I'll love them and know that they are helping me. The downhills are what's most troubling. My ankle has been giving me some problems, mostly when I have a long downhill to run. If I have to run the first 1/3 of this race with steep downhills I worry how my ankle will hold out.

I have two months until the race. If anything I just hope I'm mentally ready come race day. I'm putting in the miles, I just need the mental stamina to tackle what's looking like a difficult course.

So here I go taking a deep breath and making sure I tackle every hill as best I can.

Training vs Race Day

2007-08-29T13:19:00.001-07:00

(First off, sorry for posting a day late for the last two weeks, between long work days and having just moved I'm finding it difficult to find time to post :( )
Sunday was my first 17 mile run. Actually it turned into 18 miles. You see the group ran 14 miles and then I had to add an extra three on my own. Which in theory isn't too hard and since I have a hydration belt, it's not a terrible task running the last three miles solo. Well when it was all said and done I looked on the maps. The 14 mile route is really 14.3 miles. The 3 mile route is really 3.6 miles. All in all that's a lot closer to 18 than it is to 17. So I ran 18 miles in a little under 4 hours. Which left me completely deflated. I was hoping to run 20 miles in 4 hours and ultimately run the marathon in 5 hours. I went home trying to figure out what went wrong and I can't really think of anything that I can do differently. These things did help perk me up a bit:
The area we run in is pretty hilly. D.C. is not.
It's really humid right now, so even though the temp tops out at 80 by the end of the run, I'm literally dripping in sweat and just trudging on. Temperatures in DC will hopefully be much cooler.
And finally, race day is always different than training days. So I'm hoping I can still pull it out.

Today during speedwork (which I still hate, but know I benefit from tremendously)one of the guys was asking me how my run Sunday went and so I talked a little about my disappointing time/pace. And he reminded me that in the end training isn't about time, it's about completing the distances. So I'm going into Sundays (planned) 18 mile run trying to hold onto that thought. I just need to keep going the distance and hopefully I can meet my goal time come race day.

There are good days and then....

2007-08-22T19:32:00.001-07:00

the are bad days. I had what I can only describe as an ugly day on Sunday. Let me start at the beginning.
John and I just moved into our new house on Friday. On Saturday we went to the old place to pick up some things we'd left behind. Included in this load of items was supposed to be my visor and my fuel belt (the waist pack that carries 4 6oz bottles of fluid for my runs). I can't really function without either. Since I begin my long runs at about 5:40 am I don't really need the visor in the traditional sense of keeping the sun out of my eyes. Instead I use it to help keep some of the sweat out of my eyes and to keep my hair out of my face. It's really vital to my runs. And the fuel belt, well it's importance goes without saying. I had remembered grabbing them both and putting them somewhere, I thought my backpack, thinking "I'll put them here, then I know where they are for the morning." Boy was I wrong. At about 9:30pm I start searching for all my running gear: shoes, iPod, blinking reflector light, essential clothing, Clif Shots, fuel belt and visor. I found everything but the last two. I searched for about an hour before thinking they are at the old place and I'd have to hope for the best and find them in the morning.
Now that we've moved I'm no longer a convenient 5 minute walk to the meeting point. Instead I'm a 20 minute drive. This now means waking up at 4:50 am. YIKES. I woke up at 4:45 and realized I never set the alarm. Thank you, Lord for waking me up!
So I dress, fill my fuel belt bottles (yes, I had the bottles, not the actual belt), grab my carb gels and Clif Bar to eat on the drive there. That was my first mistake. Before most runs I had been eating a piece of bread with peanut butter, then having one gel before the run. My thinking this time was that I was only doing 9 miles, so the energy bar would be enough. I think I was wrong.
It did however turn out that my visor and my belt were at the old place! That gave me great hope for the run ahead of me. I went to the starting point. When I saw the route I was very excited, because it's a route we have only done once and I loved it before. I tend to do well on routes I don't know, or routes that I haven't run 10 times before.
So I set out. And I'm feeling good for the first 5 miles. So good in fact I get to the 5 mile point at 50:43. Normally I get to this point at about 57 or 58 minutes. But I don't feel like I'm pushing myself harder than normal. My body's not rebelling, I'm not breathing hard. I just feel like I'm cruising. So I take a carb gel and keep on keeping on. About half a mile later I was spent. Completely spent. I felt as if I had nothing left to give. It was incredibly disappointing. So I lengthened my walking periods from one minute to two. But this isn't helping. So I drink more Powerade and take another gel. Keep pushing myself hoping the right brain will overtake the left brain's logic. At about the 6 mile point I knew I was toast, or rather that not eating the toast had done me in. I finished the 9 mile run in more than 2 hours. I walked most of the way back and felt wiped out for the rest of the day.
It was quite possibly the worst run I've ever experienced. I chalk it up to a lot of things. 1) the stress (physically and mentally) of moving. 2) working hard all day unpacking and moving boxes around the house made me a wee bit dehydrated. 3) the stress of not knowing where my visor and belt were. this also kept me from getting a decent night sleep. And finally 4) straying from a pre-run "meal" schedule that had been so good to me.

So from now on no more straying, I'll eat my toast and PB and one gel before the start of the run. And I've been working hard all week to rehydrate myself.
I'm going to take it easy on Saturday too, since this week's run is 17 miles and I really want to finish it in less than 3:30. Wish me luck!

Legs and Happy Mistake

2007-08-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

I'm slow, so this generally means that I'm very familiar with what people look like from behind. So much so that I probably couldn't identify people that I run with on Sundays if they came up to me on the street and said hi. But, if they were to pass by me I could definitely identify them.
Since I see the backs of a lot of people I tend to observe things like leg shapes. There are skinny legs, curvy legs, well toned legs, perfectly tanned legs, overly tanned legs. It's all very interesting and makes me wonder what I look like from behind.

On a completely unrelated note, my mix up last week -- running 14 miles when I was only supposed to run 9 -- really helped me out in the end. Now I'm a week ahead in training, which means the first weekend I have to run 20 miles I'll have a group to do it with, instead of running 12 miles with the group and having to run 8 miles on my own. I'll also have a group for my second 20 miler. All of this makes me very happy, because the idea of running 20 miles alone, even 8 miles of that, was very daunting! Only 10 more weeks til the marathon!!

Oh the confusion

2007-08-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

The training group I'm running with has three different schedules, one for the Chicago marathon (Race date: Oct. 7), one for the NY Marathon (Nov. 4) and San Antonio (Nov. 11). The Marine Corps Marathon falls one week before NY, so those of us running that race have just bumped up training one week, which in itself can be a bit confusing, trying to figure out how many miles the group is running and how many more miles I need to add or subtract to complete my correct mileage. Not to mention trying to figure out what route I need to continue on, once I'm "finished" with the group's mileage in order to have the mileage I need for the day. Are you confused yet? I am just writing that.
So it comes as no surprise that I did the wrong mileage on Sunday. I had it in my head that since the entire group was doing 11 miles (every now and then all the marathoners run the same mileage) I needed to add on 3 for a total of 14, which I ran in 2:31. I finished the charlotte half marathon (13.1 miles) in about 2:27, so the fact that I did one extra mile in about 4 minutes completely made my day.
It can all be attributed to propery hydration and fuel. I go to great lengths during the week and especially on Saturdays to make sure I get/remain hydrated. I've also started experimenting with foods. I've been eating a piece of bread before the runs. Then I started eating a piece of bread and choking down a Power Gel/Cliff Gel right before the run and another half way through the run. (There's a post all about these Gels soon to come) This Sunday I went a step farther with the bread with a bit of PB&J, one carb gel before the run, one at the second waterstop (about the 5 mile point), and then one every hour from then on out. Of course I made the mistake of trying a new flavor at mile 10 and about got sick. No more raspberry for me, bleh.
In any case I finished the 14 miles pain free, with a bit of energy left, and not feeling like I had to use every bit of energy I had in me to finish the run. It was amazing! And I did it in great time!

Then I got home and looked at the training schedule. Turns out I was only supposed to do 9 miles and do the 14 THIS coming Sunday. Doh! Oh well. I'll do another 14 this week and then adjust from there.

Fuel, gross icky fuel

2007-08-07T15:16:00.001-07:00

If you've never done any sort of "endurance" training. You've probably never had the "joy" of eating a carbohydrate gel. I commonly refer to them as Power Gels because during training in 2004 I only used Power Bar carb gels. Most commanly I hear then called Gu (pronounced Goo) after the GuSports Energy Gels (Clif Bar also makes them and they call theirs Clif Shots. (I'm sure a mirade of other companies produce them too. ) Of course both companies make carb bars, which while aren't quite as icky are kinda chewy and well, ick in their own ways. But they get the job done. Afterall you can't really sit down and eat a baked potato or pasta or a piece of bread at mile 20 in a marathon. Generally you want something quick and easy to, um, choke down without being weighed down or choking. This is where the gels come in. They are small enough you can tuck them into a pocket or as my friend Allison does, pin them to shorts, bra, shirt, whatever, and head out on the road.
Now I'm fairly used to the taste and texture of the Power Gels. I even have a flavor or two that I prefer. But I can choke them all down when I need to.
However, Clif Bar, being a sponsor of the MCM will have their Clif Shots distributed during the race. So I wanted to make an effort to get used to these. The mocha and vanilla aren't bad. They are a bit runnier than the Power Gels, but in the end that makes it easier to swallow. Then I got to the rasberry. I can only say EW! Luckily I was able to put the taste out of my mind, suck the rest down and keep going.

Running with Team in Training was a bit different. Because we had volunteers, coaches and mentors, we had a lot more support along the course. They had Pringles (For carbs and salt) fig newtons (for carbs) and of course water and Gatorade. All we have is hydration and whatever we can keep on our bodies. So this makes the carb gels a must. Which is unfortunate because they can turn on your stomach rather quickly and give you "Gu Gut". I hope to have a few people along the race route in D.C. so hopefully I won't get Gu gut and can keep the port-a-potty use to a minimum!

The sound of my shoes

2007-07-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Running at 5:30 in the morning, when it's still dark outside and there's no one else around is admittedly a little creepy. But after about a mile I'm able to shake that off and enjoy being outside before the rest of the world wakes up.
You see, since I'm considerably slower than the rest of our running group I try to start at least 20 minutes before everyone else. This way I finish around the same time as everyone and the fabulous volunteers who provide hydration don't have to wait forever for me.
It takes a while before I'm comfortable with the dark and quiet. But after a little bit it's really amazing. This weekend I ran 12 miles, I was supposed to run 11 but I missed a turn and ended up running a bit more. So I set out a bit early and decided to keep my iPod off until the sun poke out a bit. The only thing you really hear outside are the crickets some birds and the sound of newspapers hitting driveways as the deliverer goes by. The road was a little wet so every now and then I'd hit a puddle I didn't know was there in the darkness and it makes the neatest sound. It was almost hypnotic hearing the sound of my breathing and my shoes hit the wet pavement as I got into a rhythm. It was as if I could feel God's presence helping me along. In fact I got a whole lot further into the run than I normally do before the rest of the pack caught up to me and some of the tougher hills weren't quite so difficult.
Only three months left until MCM. The long runs will only get longer from here on out, but I'm really starting to feel confident in training runs and hopefully that means that I'm getting in better shape and that I can do this!!

All things come to an end

2007-07-26T10:30:00.001-07:00

Dear Treadmill,
I fear that our meetings must come to an end. I have a new love, the open road. I know that you have been there for me in the past, when I couldn't run more than 2 miles. We've had some great times together, especially since Spectrum had televisions installed on you. How we laughed during The Daily Show repeats, and grooved along to the music on VH-1 and sometimes MTV if I got to you early enough in the morning.
But now I find you boring. I can't stand to be near you for more than 20 minutes before I find myself hating the repetitive nature of our love affair. I find myself longing to be outdoors.
So for now we'll only glimpse each other as I head to the pool or to a yoga class. I may regret this decision if the winter in Texas ever becomes bitterly cold, but since I've managed to handle the deluge of rain we've had without turning to you too often, I probably won't.
I hope the others who use you treat you right and wipe you down after each use.
Thanks for being there for me in the beginning, but it's time to move on.

Alas! an update

2007-07-25T12:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the two week absesnce. There's a lot to tell but I didn't want to keep people in suspense.
A couple of weeks ago my ankle started hurting during a long run (7 miles). Which worries me because it's the same ailment over and over. So I went back to the doctor. And he promptly ordered an MRI. He said that the x-rays his office has taken show no sign of any sort of bone fracture, so he wanted to have a look at my ligaments to see what's going on there.
So I had to back off on running for a while. On Sunday I had a 9 mile run scheduled. But knowing that I might not be up to the whole thing our training director said he'd check on me every couple of miles to see how I was feeling. Well I ended up being able to run all 9 miles completely pain free. I've learned that if I pay attention to my gait on downhills I have no pain. It's when I let the downhill completely take control that I have pain because my gait is going crazy.

Well the MRI was on Friday and I got a phone call Tuesday that the dr. wanted to see me in the next few days. Well luckily I already had an appointment scheduled this morning. I was pretty much fearing the worse: that I had indeed injured a ligament and I wouldn't be able to run anymore, much less complete a marathon.

The news wasn't quite so dire and my ailments seem to be fixable.
First I have a lesion on one of my bones. He said it normally comes from a history of ankle sprains. Well I can't remember ever having strained my ankle, but I'm sure I turned it a few times playing softball. He said it's nothing to really worry about as there's nothing they can do about it anyway.
But the cause of my pain comes from chronic inflamation near the ankle. So now I have to get prescription orthotics, which is what I thought I had, apparently I just have custom inserts. I'm sure the first is going to be even more expensive than the ones I already have, but he thinks it'll really fix my gait and relieve my pain.

So I'll be keeping my fingers crossed and saying lots of prayers that I can make it through this training and the MCM.

A Girl's Gotta Eat

2007-07-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

The thing about becoming a runner in Austin is that they have, what can only be described as, the best post run meal ever. Now, I realize that I live in what could be considered the Tex-Mex capital of the world. This is Fat-Antonio after all and we have no shortage of taco joints. But there is one taco that tops them all. One meal that ranks supreme. What's that you ask? The Don Juan from Juan in a Million. This isn't the sort of food I would recommend to someone who didn't just run 10 or more miles. Because it's a lot of food and it's a lot of not-so-good-for-you food. But the mound of egg-bacon-potato-cheesy goodness is really the only thing that satisfies after 2 hours of running. But alas, it's not in the cards for me to have until my next run in Austin. Until then I'll search for something comparable.
In the meantime I'm concentrating on finding the right pre-run fuel. Runner's World has an article in the August issue about running in the heat. Runners talk about eating the right fuel the day before a run. For one runner that's salad and fruit, because of their high water content. They also help with the carb loading. I think I'll test that out this weekend. As far as the hour before a run, I'm sticking with power gels, and pop tarts. Eaten at the right time they both give me some added oomph when I need it. I might start adding in some fruit (probably a banana) and a piece of bread and see how that works out for me. Of course I won't be eating all of that at one time. Too much food is as bad as not enough food. Hopefully I'll find the magic combination sometime this month, before the heat really starts to crank up and I become even more occupied with hydration issues.

back in the saddle

2007-07-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

So Sunday was my first "long" run after having been sick for two weeks. I guess I'm using the word sick a little loosely. Every year around this time of year (I think it's because of mold counts, but I'm not sure) my allergies go crazy. And I'm not talking about a little sneezing or sniffling. It hits me like the flu. I feel hot, achy, and tired. And then it moves to my throat. The issue there is that my lungs don't like the humidity here. I have a little big of asthma because of it. So once anything moves to my throat I get a cough for weeks. In fact I still have it, but the other symptoms have subsided and the cough doesn't hit me as frequently as had been. Here's the thing about the cough, when it starts, it's a good minute of coughing, and it starts to hurt. But now it's (kind of) gone, so Saturday and Sunday I hit the roads again.
There are three training schedules with the program I'm with the Chicago schedule and the New York schedule and the half marathon schedule. Because New York is the week after Marine Corps, I've taken that schedule and bumped it up a week. Chicago is October 7, so I've been running their mileage as long as I could. This week they were running 11 miles, NY was running 8 and half marathoners were doing 5. Because I'm coming off being sick I decided to do 5 miles (since I've already run upwards of 10) and just get back into the grove. This did not work out like I planned.
The five milers were supposed to run to the water stop and back. Only the volunteer who was supposed to be at mile 2.5 was not there. So I doubled back about a quarter of a mile to see if maybe I missed him, no such luck. Well then I was confused about if maybe I hadn't gone half way yet. So then I see signs directing everyone but the half marathoners. But we run in my neighborhood and I know a route to get me about 3 more miles so I start heading that way. Then I see the coordinator how honks and sort of flags me down, but keeps going. So I think he either has water or I'm going the wrong way. So I go back, about half a mile before I see him stopped. With no water, instead he's fixing the signs, because the New York group is going the wrong way. Sigh. So I head back the way I started out. And get to a water stop a mile later. So now I've gone about 4 miles with no water. Bleh. So then there was a lot of walking for the next 2 miles back to the start. Took me about an hour, which isn't bad considering the back tracking and the lack of water. I felt lousy the rest of the day. I'm chalking that up to my first run back and no water. Have I mentioned the no water ;-)
But overall I'm glad to be back at it again!
This weekend 9 miles! I'm getting a little worried about the heat and humidity, but I think I'm going to slowly get use to this.

It's that time of year

2007-06-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

When whatever is in the air attacks my system something awful. I've been sick for about 2 weeks, which means no running for the past two weeks, so I don't have much to report.
I am feeling better though, so I hope to be out on the roads tomorrow. I'll let you know how that goes for me.
wish me luck...and health!

That's the way it goes

2007-06-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

In May I applied for a photography workshop that takes place during the first weekend of October in NY. It's a big deal workshop that takes 100 people (50 students, 50 professionals) and immerses you in four days of intensive learning.
If I would have gotten in it would have done amazing things for my photography skills. I still haven't received my "rejection" e-mail, but I went to the site today and saw the list of names. Mine is not on there. Now ordinarily this would send me into fits. I'm an overachiever, I expect to get accepted to the things I apply for because of that. And when I don't, it pains me. Only this time was oddly different.

My first thought was: Oh, well, onto training.

The thing is running has made me realize a lot about control in life. As in you have very little sometimes. So the judges didn't like my application, I can't control that and I shouldn't dwell on it either. Life goes on, I'll find some way to make my photography better without this workshop.

I've said this before but running is a great metaphor for life. Sometimes the road is tough and the elements will beat you down, but you can still have it in you to complete the course. It doesn't matter if you're going slow or if you feel like you'll never make it over the next hill. At the end the satisfaction is in having completed the run.

Curves and Straights

2007-06-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

There isn't anything I like about running on a track. No, wait. I take that back. There are two things I like about running on a track: tracks are completely flat, and it's a nice surface to run on. But track work isn't my favorite thing. It's almost as boring as running on a treadmill, except you're actually outside and "going" somewhere. But I wanted to keep an open mind about speed work. After all it's supposed to make you a little faster over time. I got to the track a little after 5:30. We had the choice of meeting at the store and running the mile and a half to the track or meeting at the track. Well since I'm fairly certain I would have been left behind I opted to meet at the track. I got there and started my mile warm up. There were three other women and one guy from our group, so I wasn't alone on the dark track. Because well there is no daylight at 5:30. Also will someone please explain to me why it was 80 degrees when I started and 75 degrees when I got back into my car to come home and write this? Please explain the science behind it getting cooler as the sun comes up. I've wondered this since high school when I had a 7 am class, in the winter I might not need a coat when I got to school, but you could bet I would need one when I left that first class. But I digress.
So as I trotted around the track at a comfy pace I wasn't even halfway through when I wanted to stop. See the thing about the track is I know exactly how far I have left to go. Be it 100 meters or 400 meters. I feel like the track is staring me down.
Luckily I won this staring contest.

I finished up as the rest of the group got there and then we were off to the races doing "Curves and Straights." Basically it means keeping a slow pace on the curves and pick up the pace significantly on the straights, not sprinting mind you, but enough that I was ready for the curve each time.
Our "coach" Gabby said we should do about 8 laps. But if we've never done speed work before just to listen to what our bodies were telling us. For me, that was 6 laps.
For me this also brought about memories of Junior High P.E. and our "Wednesday run day." I hated Wednesdays. We all did. We started out the beginning of the school year running a minute walking five, or something like that. And we built up to running the whole time. Of course most of us would basically shuffle our feet for the "run" part and walk along lazily for the walk part.
Except this time I'm huffing and puffing trying to keep pace with everyone before I decided that was a dumb idea and finding my own pace and sticking with it. Part of me hates that in the time I did 1.5 miles they did 2 miles. But most of me really doesn't care. That part of me is just glad I got out of bed and to the track and am really committed to the entire training program, not just the long runs.

Week 2

2007-06-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

Our second "long run" was Sunday. All of 8 miles. Which in theory shouldn't be that difficult for me. Except the area that we run in is HILLY. I mean they aren't these monster hills, but there are enough rolling miles that it starts to wear on you. Not to mention it's starting to heat up in San Antonio.
At about mile 4, I could feel my whole body heating up. And the only thing I wanted to do was make it to the next water stop and pour a cup of cold water on my head. Except that guy in charge of the water stop did one better. He had an ice chest filled of towels soaking in ice water. It was the best thing ever. I squeezed the bulk of the cold water over my head, covered my face and chest with the cold towel and felt my body temperature drop a good five degrees.
The last four miles were just as challenging as the first four, with the exception of the last 200 feet being all downhill.
Wednesday will be my first speed training workout. I'm a little anxious and a little excited about it.
Then we head to New Mexico where I have to find some place to do a 5 mile run. 5, not too hilly miles, good luck to me. According to the training schedule I was supposed to do 5 miles this week and 8 next week. But since I'm going to be out of town and not sure where I can do such a long run, I switched them up.
My ankle hurt a little this morning, I need to get back to the podiatrist and see what's going on. ugh, I fear this ankle may bug me for the duration of training.

Day and Night, Night and Day

2007-06-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

That's my Cole Porter reference for the day.

So my first official training run for the marathon (aka MCM) was bright and early on Sunday morning. Actually it was early, but there is nothing bright at 6 am. Turns out that's a pretty good time to run since the sun hasn't had a chance to make it hot yet. It was of course humid, very very humid. So humid in fact that when I was done with the run my clothes were heavy from all the sweat.
When I trained for the Country Music Marathon in 2004, the most I had ever run was 5 miles on a treadmill. So my first 4 mile run was a long slow event. I think I finished in close to an hour. I wouldn't say it was miserable, but it wasn't fun either.
So I was really looking forward to Sundays run. I mean I'm in decent shape now and I've run three half marathons this year. When I got to the gathering place we were told that we had a choice of 3 or 5 miles. The sleepy side of me was trying to convince the overachiever in me to do 3. But I opted for the five. Turns out there's a guy in the group that runs about the same pace I do. He's a bit faster, but takes walk breaks every 6 minutes (a brilliant idea and I might see if I can't keep pace with him next time and do the walk breaks too) so we kept passing each other throughout the run. It was nice to have someone around, considering I did the runs for Nashville all by my lonesome. Sure there were people along the way with water, but there wasn't anyone that was at my pace.
As always the first mile and a half were painful. It always takes me at least 15 minutes to hit my stride. After that I felt like I was coasting. And I managed to do the five mile route in just over 53 minutes!

Speed work starts next Wednesday at 5:30 in the morning! Yikes!
I didn't do any of the speed work in 2004, so this time around I'm really sticking to the schedule and doing everything it says to do. With any luck I can finish under 5 hours at the MCM.

Bright and Early

2007-06-03T03:24:00.001-07:00

It's 5:22 am and I'm about to leave my house to go on my first official marathon training session for the Marine Corps marathon.

Oh my goodness! it's so early in the morning. I hope I can get used to this.

Summer Lovin

2007-05-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day is the unofficial start to summer. It's kind of a sad commentary that people are usually more interested in tubing and other "Memorial Day" events than they are actually observing Memorial Day and it's original intent, but I digress.

The weather in S. Texas has been great, we haven't even hit 90 degrees yet. Which gives me lots of hope for this summer. Except for the fact that it seemed SO hot yesterday. Mostly it was pretty humid from all the rain that had been in the area, and anytime the cloud cover broke, I felt like I was in an oven.

This worries me a bit about training this summer. I got home from work yesterday and had no desire to go back out in the heat, none. And then I woke up late today, but did manage to make it out of my house and run 4 miles. The morning, although the humidity was at 90% was much more pleasant. I was covered in sweat at the end of the run, but felt great. I think I'll just have to work on morning runs and if I want to run in the evening, it'll have to be on a treadmill. The only problem with the treadmill is that there's no place to spit. And well when you've been running for 30 minutes, fluids start to form and need to be released. (Gross, I know, I'm sorry, but it's the truth) So we'll see how the summer training goes. I'm really hoping to get 2 workouts in a day, even if that second workout isn't running it's swimming or yoga. But I think the harder I train the easier the 26.2 will be.

My training program (the one I'm paying for) starts on Sunday! Hooray! At 6 am. Boo!
Good thing I live 2 blocks from the meet up point! more sleep for me.

New Shoes

2007-05-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

My new shoes came in yesterday. And I couldn't be happier.
They say running shoes should be replaced every 300-500 miles. It's been hard for me to remember how many miles I've put on these. They are a few years old, since I slacked off for a long while on regular running. I've put about 300 miles on them just this year, I ran about 300 miles last summer, so I definitely should have replaced these a while back. In theory these shoes could have upwards of 900 miles on them.

So when I put the new ones on, they were like putting on clouds!

I can't wait to go run on them tomorrow!!

14 days

2007-05-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

That's now long it took for the Marine Corps Marathon to sell out. Registration officially closed on Wednesday at 3 pm est. Maybe you're wondering: What is capacity for the marathon. Answer: 30,000. Yes, that's right 30,000 and that doesn't count the 10K registrants.
On the Marine Marathon website it has a press release that says this: A previous MCM finisher, Michael Goldstein of Washington, DC, was the first runner to register online. Goldstein was one of 4,614 runners, or more than 1 runner per second, registered in the first hour of rolling registration.

The Austin marathon has a cap of 12,000 runners (6,000 half marathoners, 6,000 marathoners). But to give you a better idea of how large this race really is, Farmington, N.M. where I was raised and my fabulous family still resides, has a population of about 38,000.
This race is going to be HUGE!!! I'm so excited.

A bird of a different color

2007-05-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Someone recently asked me why, if I'm training for a marathon, don't I instead/also train for the MS 150. For those of you who don't know this is a 150 mile bike ride from San Antonio to Corpus Christi that benefits The National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Let me first say that I completely support the people who do this and the foundation that receives the fundraising money.
I, however am not a cyclist. I'm a runner.
Cyclists and runners are inherently different. Let me start with the sports themselves. There's a lot of fancy equipment involved in cycling, special padded shorts, weird shoes that apparently lock you into the bike, a helmet, the bike itself, replacement parts for the bike etc. Running involves clothes (except for the couple races out there for nudists) and shoes. Sure you can have your iPod, special running shoes (which I do have) a fancy wrist watch, a hydration system, but most runners just go out and run, sans fancy gear.
It's more than the equipment that separates us, it's our very nature.
You're more inclined to see a group of runners at a restaurant post workout, still sweaty and probably smelly. The cyclists I know, hate this about runners. We don't care we just want to eat.
I've never seen a cyclist wipe/blow snot on their own clothing, I've seen many MANY runners do this. (But I still can't bring myself to do it, but I can spit pretty far these days)
Cyclists compete against each other. With the exception of elite runners, we're competing against ourselves.

There's no such thing as a cyclists high.

And well running is harder, even Lance Armstrong has said so.

So I'll keep pounding the pavement and let others pedal away.

To sleep, perchance to dream

2007-05-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

So I'm already giving myself anxiety about a run that is 5 months away. I didn't feel like this about the Country Music Marathon three years ago. But then again I also had no idea what I was getting myself into. I'm having all these dreams about the marathon already, and it's causing some restless sleep. Hopefully I'll find something else to obsess about and I'll get back to enjoying the idea of running the Marine Corps Marathon :)

In the meantime I've been looking for motivational quotes to get me through the anxiety. Here are a few I came across

"I have met my hero, and he is me." - George Sheehan

Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be running.

"The only true freedom is the freedom to sweat out your problems."

“Running is a road to self-awareness and self-reliance... You can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet, but when you are through, exhilarated and exhausted, at least for a moment everything seems right with the world.”

The last one is particularly poignant for me. There are a couple of photographers I work with who are also runners, so they get the allure of the marathon. But as others have found out about my new goal they ask me the obvious question: Why?
I'll probably write this many times over the next five months mostly as a reminder for myself, but the thing is when I crossed the finish line in Nashville it was exhilarating and calming all at the same time. It made me realize that there is NOTHING in life that I can't accomplish. The world is my oyster so to speak. Completing a marathon takes more emotional and physical strength than I ever knew I had. Crossing that finish line is a reminder that God supports me through all things, that God has given me courage, strength and emotional stamina to face life head on. I know I talk about the medals, which are definitely nice, but in the end the real medal will be the spiritual clarity that God graces me with. Me, God and 26.2 miles. There's nothing else like it.

So tonight I'll pray for a little spiritual clarity and the courage to face the path before me.

Training Tidbit

2007-05-10T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is from my Jeff Galloway training program and I thought I'd share it!

Training for and completing the Marine Corps Marathon stands out as one of the most esteemed of life's achievements drawing upon one's physical, mental and spiritual resources over an extended period of time. The universal respect flows from sedentary observers who wish they could find the fortitude to get out there. Participants discover a mature self-respect, along with the previously dormant strengths and capabilities to meet the challenges on this five-month migration that begins when you complete the online registration and concludes at the Iwo Jima Monument in Arlington and are greeted by a respectful member of the United States Marine Corps.

Semper Fi

2007-05-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

I have officially registered for the Marine Corps Marathon and I am completely excited!!
The race is in exactly 170 days! So I went out and ran 4 miles yesterday and I felt great! I then downloaded a training program from the marathon website to see what the program had to say. This one is a little daunting because it starts with a long run of 7 miles scheduled for next Saturday, which isn't a big deal. But then I started going through it week by week to see how the mileage increased. The longest run is in September and it's a 29 mile run. I literally laughed out loud when I saw that. When we started with Team in Training the longest run we did was 20 miles, I can't imagine running the whole marathon mileage, plus a few extra during training.
Needless to say I won't be following that schedule, I'm hoping the fleet feet training won't be as intense.
Anyway, training for me starts next weekend and I'm SUPER excited!
As I learn more details about training and the actual marathon my postings will share that with my fabulous readers. In the meantime here's an interesting tidbit: The Marines stationed at Quantico are required to either run or volunteer to help out during the race. How neat is that?!

Get your feet on the street

2007-05-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure that my title accurately describes this posting, but I love that saying so I"m making use of it :)

In Texas there is a push to have P.E. be mandatory for middle school students. Not knowing a whole lot about middle school curriculum, since I'm not from here, I was amazed that this isn't already mandatory. In New Mexico I had P.E through junior high (they are now middle schools) and was required to take at least one P.E. class in high school. If you were involved in a school sport this took the place of your one high school P.E. credit.
So because of growing obesity, this may be the first generation of children to not outlive their parents, there is a push for more P.E. I think this is a great thing. There are the obvious problems, funding, resources, etc. But one of the objections to this is that it'll take away from electives. Some say that it'll limit the amount of electives students have, during a time when they are exploring new things. And people are concerned about funding being cut from music or art programs. I don't disagree with this argument. In fact as a ninth grader I had to choose choose between Spanish and choir or take a less challenging math class geometry. The geometry class was scheduled during the choir class or during the Spanish class. Here I was at 14 having to make a pretty big decision: music, language or math. I remember crying and crying about the idea of having to take a lesser math class. I remember crying about the possibility of not being in choir. I remember crying at the idea of not taking another Spanish class. In the end I chose to not take choir and was depressed about it all summer long. I'm still upset about that. I also had to choose another elective, speech (btw, I hated public speaking then and I hate it now, but it was a great learning experience)
But I know that in life you have to make decisions and that was a great learning experience for me. But what I remember most about my 9th grade year isn't that I didn't get to be in choir. I remember how great I remember my P.E. class. At Tibbetts Junior High we had what they called "Advanced P.E." If you did well in P.E. in 7th and 8th grades and got recommendations from other teachers, you were able to enroll in "Advanced P.E" and it was definitely exercise disguised as fun. We learned to repel down cliffs, we had our own track meets, we did a bunch of swimming activities, we played racquetball, did step aerobics, and had our own version of "American Gladiator." And we still had to do weekly Wednesday runs, but came to really like P.E. so the dreaded runs weren't quite so dreaded. We even had special uniforms.
I wonder if Texas schools were able to do things like this, really make P.E. an enjoyable experience if people wouldn't warm up to the idea of mandatory P.E., including the students. No one wants to run around a track aimlessly for 30 minutes. No one wants to do push ups for no reason. But if we could teach students how much fun it is to be active that would be the first step toward stopping this obesity trend.
We aren't doing these students any favors by not showing them how great exercise can be and how much fun it can be. I'd definitely be upset to see music or art programs go by the wayside, but we won't have any kids to play music or create beautiful art if they aren't healthy enough to get off their couches to do so.

God's gifts

2007-05-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

Part of what I like about running is that it's a great metaphor for life. I think Oprah's been quoted as saying that the thing about running is that you get out of it what you put into it. How great of an analogy is that for life?
Every now and then I come across some great writing about running that really sums up life. For instance Kristin Armstrong, in writing about her first marathon said, "It's an odd thing, when your body says no and your mind and your spirit say yes. It's frightening and empowering and clarifying and beautiful all at once. It was the past year of my life, shortened into a span of 26.2 arduous miles. It was the culmination of experiences, the knowledge that my body can be pushed past its breaking point, just like my heart. In both instances, when you come to the end of yourself, God's grace is all that sustains. And it is enough."
Beautiful right? Ever since I read that three years ago I've found it helpful. It's helped me through difficult runs and difficult days at the office. God's grace is a beautiful thing.

So when I read this in Kathrine Switzer's book Marathon Woman, this really struck a cord. Kathrine Switzer is the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. In this passage she's talking about preparing for that race.

The thing I worried about most was courage. Would I have the courage to keep running if it really hurt, if it got harder than I was used to, if Heartbreak Hill broke me? Yep, that was it, I was worried about maybe not having the courage if it got awful.
So I decided to have a word with God, for whom I felt I'd shown plenty of respect and appreciation well in advance of this race, so this was no last-minute panic plea. I thought it was selfish of runners to ask God for things like, "Please make sure I finish," or "Please don't make it hurt." If you've done the work, I don't think God is up there making those kinds of decisions anyway. But I do think he (or she) does help us out if we ask for things to better our character, so I felt it was fair to ask for the courage to make the right decision when it got hard. Because it was going to get hard. The marathon is always hard. It took me a long time to boil down my fears to this, but once I realized what my fears were really all about, I slept soundly.

So tonight I'll go to sleep asking God for courage and I plan on sleeping soundly.

Forever on Google

2007-05-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

Runners World emails me motivational quotes everyday. It's part of this month's issue in which they listed 101 kicks in the butt, basically ways to get readers off their tushes and on the pavement. One of them says "Race results stay on Google forever."
It's an interesting thought, that someone someday is going to search for my name and see my time on the River Road Run, or some other obscure event.
I recently googled a friend of mine from high school and found her marathon race results. I've still had no luck finding an email address for her, but I know she does a sub 4 hour marathon.
If you google me, you get a bunch of links about Helen Henrichs at Bentley College, obviously not me.
But I'd like to think that someday soon you can google me and find a 5 hour finish for the Marine Corps Marathon. My unofficial training for that started today. I ran 4 miles this morning, if I have time after work I want to do 2 more. Training with the group starts next month. So here goes nothing.

The J Word

2007-05-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Webster's defines jogging as: to run at a slow trot. So probably by that definition what I do is "jog." But I hate that word. I like to think of myself as a runner. People don't "jog" marathons, they "run" marathons. And while it's just a matter of semantics I don't want to be called a jogger. After all I subscribe to Runner's World. I'm on "runner's" forums, I am joining a running group. Never is the word jogging used. I feel like jogging is done in junior high gym classes, in sweat pants around a track, reluctantly. Running is done over the course of miles in sweat wicking clothing. Sure I'm slow as molasses but I don't jog.

Up until now I wondered if I was the only runner who felt this way, but then I started reading "Marathon Woman" by Kathrine Switzer. She was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, during a time when people thought if a woman ran more than 800 meters her uterus would fall out. And while I'm only a few chapters into it, I felt justified in my feelings about the J word when I read that she too didn't like to be told that she jogs. She runs.

I wonder how many other mid-pack runners feel that way, that jogging is a foul word and should be banished. It's not enough to make me want to run 8 minute miles (I'm happy with my slow molasses pace) but it is enough to make me correct people use the J word.

Journaling

2007-04-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school and in college I kept a journal. Looking back on it now I find most of what I wrote hilarious. The things that seemed to be such huge problems are such tiny things in the grand scope of life. It's almost embarrassing to read how self involved I was.
Of couse, every now and then when I have really fabulous experiences, I think about how I should start keeping a journal again. I may afterall want to tell my children stories and not remember all the details as well as I would like to and someday stop procrastinating and start writing.
In the meantime I'm going to start writing in my running journal. This is because I've been a complete and total slacker for the last week and a half. Last week I had a ligitimate reason to not run, my ankle was hurting and the doctor told me to lay off it for a while. This week, well I've not really had any excuse, save complete laziness. I also was looking for an "off season" from half marathon training to marathon training. But it's time to get off my tush.
I did manage to eek out two miles today, a far cry from the 4 I wanted to be doing every day by this time this year.
The thing great thing about runninng is that you get out of it what you put into it. And when I put a whole lot into it, I really do reap endless returns.
So as I write down my miles and how each run felt and where I ran and such, I'll put a tracker on the blog for weekly and monthly mileage. Look for that next week! :)

Rest then more training

2007-04-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

I'll probably take it easy this week and start running again on Saturday. I'm thinking of doing a spinning class once a week to help break up the monotony of running. We'll see how that goes.
I'll probably cut my mileage way down, well, to 2 miles a day instead of 3. Until May when the marathon training program that I'm signing up for starts.
Summer will be upon us in South Texas so keep your fingers crossed for me that I adapt to running in the heat.
Pictures from Charlotte to come soon.

Things I learned in Charlotte

2007-04-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Police provided some of the best race traffic control I've ever seen. They had four officers at all the major intersections, officers at every side street and even some parking lots where motorists might have tried to make a shortcut through and cut off race traffic.
Apparently racers in Charlotte don't run off the route to go pee (as I've seen many a runner in Austin road runs do)
Anything about 40 degrees and sunny and I can wear a sleeveless shirt and be OK temperature wise
Running in Charlotte is a beautiful experience, all the tree covered streets and amazing homes, make for a beautiful route
Apparently you can run a half marathon in a bunny suit and not be an Austinite
There are people who will cheat.
Runners will always let you tag along and join in their conversation, if you run at their pace. I encountered a game of "Would you rather" (I knew this about runners before Charlotte, but it was good to see that outside of Texas runners are the same)
Little kids who give you high fives and get a sweaty one will rub it on their brother's back
I always hate miles 1 and 2 and want to stop, but before I know it I'm cruising to mile 6 and feeling fine.
Running uphill for the last .2 mile sucks
God gives you signs and support to help you finish the course, such as the group of women who had scripture from Ecclesiastes on their shirt that said "Two are better than one, when one falls, his friend can pick him up." This also just happened to be one of the readings from my and John's wedding and he was indeed there to help pick me up when I was close to falling down in the course.
If I keep training regularly I can keep taking a minute or so off my half marathon time.
When I put my mind to something, with the right frame of mind, I can accomplish it.
I'm a road race snob

Admiting it is the first step

2007-04-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'll admit it. I'm a race snob. Okay, there I've said it and now no one can hold it against me. That isn't to say that I'm super picky about the races I run, I'm not, I just accept a certain amount of things from races. I guess I should start by saying that because I started running in Austin and did about a dozen road races in Austin, my idea of races is molded by one of the greatest running cities in the country. So I expect every race to be operated exactly as they do it in Austin. So when little things were amiss during the Charlotte Racefest, I found myself being taken aback. And when I say little, I mean little. For instance they didn't have the little red ties to use for the timing chip. Instead we were to tie our laces through the chip. I was taken aback by that. In all the races I've done with timing chips we were told to NOT do this. In fact Allison had a shoelace cut by doing this, and almost lost her shoe in the process. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a big deal, unless your calves are cramping up as your cross the finish line and now you have to stop, untie your shoe, unlace it and remove the chip. I'd much rather just be able to reach down and with one strong yank have the chip come off my shoe.
I was irritated that as an early registrant for the half Marathon, I was given a generic race number. The 10k runners and the late registrants for the half marathon had numbers that actually said "Charlotte Racefest" mine did not. Of course these are all don't really matter, but what did was the clock discrepancies. I'm sure I didn't cross the start line until at least 30 seconds after the gun went off (Sarah and Bill Bradford, who ran the 10K and crossed the start line with me thought we started at least a minute after the gun) but yet there is only a 3 second difference between my time and the clock time. I think I finished in 2:27:30 (ish) the official time said 2:27:57. OK, so what's the big deal in 27 seconds? To me? a big difference. I finished the Austin half marathon in 2:28:57, so I finished Charlotte a full minute faster, but I really think it was a minute and a half. To me, it's kind of a big deal.
But enough complaints, overall this was a really good race. For starters the weather was amazing and John and Keith (my father-in-law, who is also the best host East of the Mississippi) were able to make it to a couple of spots along the route to refuel me and give me some words of encouragement along the way. And those words were definitely needed as the route was amazingly difficult. Well the second half anyway. I made it to the 5 mile point in just over 50 minutes, but that's where the hills came in. At about mile 6 we started climbing and we'd keep climbing for about a mile and a half before the course once again began it's slow rolling hills. That is until mile 9.
A little ways before the mile 9 marker a small girl hollered out from her lawn "There's a big hill around the corner!" My first thought was "gee thanks kid", my second thought was "man! she wasn't kidding." It was in fact a pretty short hill, with quite the steep grade. There were more hills between mile 9 and the finish line and I had been on track to finish at an 11 minute/mile pace. And then my ankle started to bother me, and then my legs started to cramp and I still had 3.1 miles to go. I crossed the 10 mile point at 1:50, but couldn't maintain the pace when I had to stop and stretch my calves every few yards.
But I finished, along with a marine in fatigues, with a full pack and combat boots, a grown man dressed as a bunny rabbit, and about 2,000 other runners.
They gave the half marathoners and the 10K'ers the same medal, but at least I know that I did the 13.1.
And maybe now that I've done a race outside of Austin I've broaden my visions about how races are to be run and that things work differently outside of the Capital of Texas.

Countdown

2007-04-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

Forgive me for being a day late on the post, I've had a rough start to the week.

The countdown to Charlotte has begun and in attempts to give my body one last push I'm running as many hills as I can possibly run in the next few days. Which included four miles of just hills on Monday. There are a serious of hills in my neighborhood. Four streets that run parallel to each other that have quite an incline, so I decided to go up and down each hill and snake my way through the neighborhood on the inclines. Turns out I can tackle each and every hill if I get into the right stride. Running quicker miles on the treadmill lately has thrown off my pace. I'm doing between 9:30 and 10 minute miles on the treadmill, which is fine if I take a walk break every mile. And my normal race pace is an 11 minute mile. So lately when I've been running in the street for a good 3 or 4 mile run I've tuckered out right away and couldn't figure out why. Turns out I forgot to dial it down. So I'll need to remember to dial it down on Saturday so I don't wear myself out in the first 2 miles of the half marathon.
T-minus 2 days and 15 hours. Tonight, more hills

So it begins

2007-04-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

OK, technically nothing has begun yet, but almost.
As everyone reading probably knows, I turn 30 this year. One of the things I wanted to do when I turned 30 (or before) was to run another full marathon. And I'm hoping that we'll be able to swing it financially so that I'm able to run the Marine Corps Marathon in October, because it's not as if a trip to D.C. is inexpensive. But other than trying to figure that part of it out, I've started looking into training programs.
The health and fitness reporter at the Express-News recently wrote a short piece on training for the San Antonio marathon in November and the various programs in town. Turns out there are three major programs run by the three different running stores in town, Run Gear Run, Roger Soler's Sports, and Fleet Feet. The latter two were $50 cheaper than Run Gear Run so I started looking into those. As luck would have it the program at Fleet Feet puts people into groups based on your prospective finishing time and the race you want to run. They have people training for the MCM. Fleet Feet is just a block away from my house. And, this was the icing on the cake, training runs start at 6:30 am, as opposed to 7 am. Why would I want an earlier training time? Because 6:30 am is a whole lot cooler than 7 am. Part of the reason I'm looking for a training program is because training to run 26.2 miles in the South Texas summer scares the heck out of me, I mean who wants to run in 100 degree heat? So I figure I'd be in much better hands with an actual training group.
An added bonus of Fleet Feet is that it starts in June, as opposed to July so I get an extra month of training.
So now all the research has been done, all I have to do is pay for the program and hit the road.

Running has taken on a whole new place in my life and it's a pretty exciting time to be Helen the runner :)

Oh, and just as an FYI, I'm trying to do regular blog updates on Tuesdays, there might be more during the week, but with luck there will definitely be new posts on Tuesdays. I just got in under the wire today, but it is still Tuesday :)

Exercise your mind

2007-03-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

I've always known that a good workout is the best mood elevator. I often use running as a way to calm down after a hard day at work, as a pick me up after a frustrating day, or simply to get rid of a case of "The Mondays." This week's Newsweek has an article about that very thing "Researchers are learning more about how physical activity affects our moods. Is sweat the hot new antidepressant?"
But they also have an article discussing whether exercise can make a person smarter. A researcher named Charles Hillman has found a correlation between student's physical abilities and their math and reading scores.
I read this and thought: No wonder most of the top 10% of the students in my graduating class were athletes. It gives new meaning to the idea of the scholar-athlete, as in people who are athletes can truely be scholars if given the chance to learn and not the easy way out.

In any case, it makes me want to workout more. If exercise can indeed stave off Alzheimers and other cognitive disorders then we should all be much more active.

If exercise helps your brain develop and children all around this country are sitting on the couch playing video games instead of running around outside, then what will our country look like when they are in charge? We're so far behind the rest of the world academically. Maybe extra physical activity everyday would improve our standing.

Going Solo

2007-03-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

I want to start by saying something completely unrunning related. What is people's obsession with American Idol. It's a television show people, the world will not come to an end if your favorite singer does not win. Now, onto more important things :)

Lately I've found that when I run alone I tend to have a more productive run. I can push myself harder and farther. Yesterday is a prime example of that. I have a 3 mile route I do around the Olmos dam, which is also where I do my hill training. I got to the top of the dam (1.5 miles) and backtracked for about half a mile before turning around once again to go up the dam again. I managed to make it up the dam five times before finishing the last half of my loop.
But for some reason I'm unable to even make it up the dam and finish the loop without major walk breaks. It's odd because you'd think that I'd be more motivated running with a partner, maybe the social interaction is taking up too much of my cells that I could be used for running.
Maybe it's because I don't use an iPod when I run with someone and the songs get me in a rhythm and up the hills.
Before getting into the decent shape I'm in I always ran alone. Part of that was because I didn't think I could keep up with anyone else so I went at it alone. Now when I run alone it's because no one is available to go with me. But it's not the same experience that it used to be. Don't get me wrong, I love the company, everyone knows I'm a sociable person and like having someone to hang out with. But there's something about running alone that I truly enjoy. I feel like I get more out of the solo run, physically, mentally and emotionally. But then I ran across this article that says that running alone doesn't offer the same benefits as running with someone. Granted it says that it doesn't offer the same benefits with combined with social isolation, and I'm certainly not socially isolated. But it makes me wonder why, if this research says do I have better runs alone? And why do the races I do lately kick me in the tush?

Bluebonnets and Bunny Rabbits

2007-03-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

The Capital 10,000 in a word, sucked.
To begin with the humidity was brutal. Which is always unfortunate, but even more so when you are uncertain about the race before you anyway. And I woke up not so much in a race mood. But I managed to get myself out of bed and to the predetermined meeting place where I would sit and wait for 30 minutes for the two people I was to run with. One of them would never show up. Oh well. She and I never made a solid meeting plan and so I wasn't completely sure we were still meeting. Pancakes (Allison) however, did show up. And so we began to weave through the masses of people who were waiting for the race to start.

The thing with this race is that more than 15,000 people ran it. And they group us according to pace, there are elite runners (people who finish the 10K, 6.3 miles in less than 40 minutes) competitive/timed runners (the rest of us who want to be timed and won't win but some will win their age group) and non competitive. And there was a fourth group, but I still can't figure out how they were categorized. They do the grouping to start us in waves. That way people with strollers don't get knocked over by people running 4 minute miles. We made our way to the middle of the pack and waited for the race to begin. Suddenly the pack of people began to move and we began to move as one large pack of snails, SLOWLY at first, until the crowd starts to thin.

The race encourages Austin's weirdness and offers a $1,000 prize for the best costume. So along the way I saw a woman dressed as a bluebonnet (she looked hot and tired at mile 1), a girl with bunny ears and a cotton tail, a guy dressed as a giant rolled up Austin American-Statesman, two guys dressed as judges, and he guy I finished the race next to, dressed in a business suit carrying a briefcase.

More about the actual race. This race, as I said sucks. The hills in Austin hate me and I hate them. And this race is brutal. The first few miles are the last few miles of the Austin half marathon, but backward. So everywhere that was downhill at the end of the half is uphill at the beginning of the 10K. As the race begins we're running up Congress toward the Capital and I'm trying to shake my "anti-race" mood. We get to the Mile 1 Marker in 10 minutes and I start thinking that I need to slow way down. Common race advice is this: start the first half of your race slower than your normal pace and you'll have enough energy at the end to finish in a better time. For those keeping score a 10 minute mile is way FASTER than my normal pace of 11:30. So I'm thinking that I need to slow down, only it's hard to slowdown moving uphill because then my body just wants to stop. We come around San Jacinto to 15th Street and start a slow ascent, and get to Mile 2 in with my watch reading 20:00. Yikes, still not slowing down and here comes the big hill. We go down a pretty steep hill as we cross over Lamar and then comes the mega mama hill known as Enfield. Which is about a mile all up hill. I make it about 3/4 of the way up before I feel like the thick humid air is smothering me and I have to start walking. And walking and walking. But I still manage to make it to mile 3 with the clock reading 32 minutes.

But at this point I can't breathe very well and still feel like the air is smothering me, a feeling I haven't had since moving here to go to college 11 years ago. As we get to the top of Enfield and go underneath MoPac I hear someone holler "it's all downhill from here!" which wasn't a completely true statement, but the large climbs were done. And that gave me a little burst of energy.
Somewhere around mile 5 I started feeling odd. And then my calf starts to cramp up. So I tell Allison to keep going and I stop to stretch and regroup. And then it happens. The one thing I've always dreaded happening in a race. I get sick. Randomly sick. Involuntarily sick. And then suddenly I felt better. A million times better, ready to run a race better. I wish I would have felt like that at the beginning of the race.
The rest of the way up Cesar Chavez wasn't as bad as the rest of the run. That's where I met up with the guy in the suit and where I passed a woman pushing a stroller with two not so small children (women like that are my heroes). And ended up finishing in 1:10, about 11:18 minute/miles. All in all it still sucked, but I am happy with my time.

Today I'm off to run the Olmos dam a few times to get some more hill training in for Charlotte. The Charlotte Racefest Half Marathon is in about 2 weeks! I'm sad to learn that the 10K'ers and the half marathoners will receive the same medal. Oh well, I guess it's all about the personal satisfaction of 3 half marathons in on year. Oh! and it's also in the same neighborhood as my father-in-law's house, so that's exciting news! it means I've been in the area and kind of know what I'm getting myself into, I've put freak out mode on hold for now.

Why do I do this? Oh yeah, for the medals

2007-03-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

So I've got about a month left before the Charlotte Racefest half marathon. And I'm going to have to start running some mega hills between now and the race (about 4 weeks) to get myself ready for the hills.
I'm in full on freakout mode. I'm in full on freakout mode 4 weeks early. I'm not usually in freakout mode until the weekend of the race. Freakout mode goes like this: lots of panic and lots of moodiness and at the height of freakout mode I stop talking to those around me, ESPECIALLY about the race. (I'm writing that as a warning to all the fabulous people in Charlotte who I LOVE. It's not personal if I clam up, it's freak out :) )
So freakout mode has come early, mostly because I went in search of an elevation chart for the run. and I ended up mapping it myself. Here's what it looks like in case you're interested.

So I'm sitting at the computer thinking "Oh MY GOODNESS!" And it's all I can do to sit here and not get up and go run the dam near our house, but it's 8:45 at night and I just ate dinner. So instead I'll sit here and breathe and hope that I have enough training under my belt to get me in under 2:30, or at least in under the required 3:30.

So first thing tomorrow I'm getting my rear out of bed as early as possible and running at the gym. Packing a bag and going to run intervals at the dam.

March Madness

2007-03-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's that time of year. That time when no work is done because everyone is busy filling out brackets and seeing if the teams they chose to win are indeed winning.
This year I wanted to incorporate my running into the whole madness and I had this great idea that I would run a mile for every incorrect team I picked.
HAHAHAHAHAH, ahem. excuse me.
The tournament began at 11:20 as I write this we're coming up on 7 pm and so far if I stuck to that I'd have to run five miles tomorrow. Which is doable, but doubtful. I don't like doing more than 4 miles on a day I have to work.
Maybe I'll resume this once we're into the Elite 8.

Dear Diary

2007-03-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't kept a diary or journal since fall of 1998, the semester I spent in London. Up until then I had kept one very sporadically and haven't really done one since. Which is why it was hard for me to break down and buy a running log. But just writing down my miles on a calendar isn't really enough. Especially since I've started to do some speed work and I've taken my treadmill runs from 11 minute miles to 10 minute miles. So I decided it was time to start logging all the jogging.
The hardest part so far was buying a log. Barnes and Noble had four different ones, granted I could have bought a composition notebook and called it a day, but there's something about an official log. They have a lot of running information, charts, advice, training plans, all stuff I love to read. So I sat in the store for about 15 minutes trying to figure out which one. I quickly eliminated two and started to give the finalists a good look: One was written by the guy who calls himself the Penguin because he says he waddles when he runs. He writes a column for Runner's World called No Need for Speed. So between his books and his column, I have it on good authority that this guy knows what he's talking about. Plus he works with Team in Training and is a motivational speaker for them. He spoke to us before the Country Music Marathon, so how could I not want to support this guy. The other one, well, it was flashy. The pages were thicker, less newsprint like. It had bright colors, bold fonts, I was very much like a squirrel attracted to a bright shiny object. And it was $4 cheaper.
In the end it came down to this: They both had pace charts (if your pace is X you'll run a 5K in Y minutes, a 10K in Z minutes, a marathon in XX etc.) only the fancier of the two only went up to a 9:40 pace. And since I'm an 11:30 minute/mile during a half marathon I couldn't possibly go with a book that didn't include me!
So now I have my log book and I'm unsure as to when I'll actually start using it. Hopefully this Sunday, since I need to run 10 miles this weekend to keep my endurance up for the Charlotte Racefest Half Marathon.

Up next on the race calendar, though, is the Capital 10,000. Every time I look at the race map a feeling of dread overcomes me. The race is very Austin (read: hilly!). So let's all keep our fingers crossed that the Austin hills don't hurt too much.

I'm a runner

2007-03-06T13:51:00.000-08:00

Recently someone told me that my ankle ailments were because I'm "not a runner." To which I said excuse me? And also thought: How Rude!

Afterall I have a medal to show that I completed the Country Music Marathon, all 26.2 miles.
I AM a runner. I run at least 20 days a month, at least 3 miles a day. That's a lot of mileage for someone who is "not a runner." I think I went out and ran 4 miles that day just out of spite. It's part of the reason I ran 2 half marathons in 2 months, to prove that I am a runner.

Granted I'm not a 7 minute miler or anything of that nature. It's actually taken me a long time to work myself into being a midpacker even if it's the back of the midpack (40 percent of the field finished behind me in the Austin half marathon).

The fact is it's taken me a long time to become a "runner." I've always wanted to be one, but never really had the drive to do it. I'd run a mile here and there but would always become discourage after huffing and puffing for that mile.

Then I moved to Austin, where a person can easily get peer pressured into working out. Nevermind that Austin is home to Lance Armstrong, but the whole community is workout happy. They say that only 1% of the population has run a marathon. I'm convinced that at least 50% of the 1% live in Austin.

It was in Austin that I met and fell in love with the running, mostly because of the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail.

Now anyone who has done any sort of activity around the trail will tell you how busy it is, runners, walkers, bikers, rowers (in the lake of course), people playing frisbee with their dogs, they are all out there. It's part of what makes Austin great. But when I'm on the trail, if I'm in the right frame of mind, it's a whole mind, body, and soul experience. It's me, the trail and God. People have written books on how to have a spiritual experience when running. But for me it's simple: the crunch of the gravel, the breeze off the lake (even if it's a cold breeze) the tree cover, my own breath and the strength of God's hands. It's something I've only been able to find at Town Lake.

And of course there was my experience with Team in Training, a great organization that I hope to raise money for again some day.

All in all it turns out that I am runner. Running is part of what defines me now. Afterall I have three whole drawers filled with running clothes.

I write this because recently people have told me "I'd like to run, but I'm not a runner." Folks, we're all runners. By nature we're meant to run. If you want to be a runner go run! And don't get discouraged. Those first two miles are hard! Especially when you're a beginner. The first three miles are hard once you've been able to run 2 miles in a row. But eventually it stops being hard and becomes rewarding and becomes a part of your life.

As for me I'll keep running despite my critics. I'll run because of how fabulous I feel when I'm done. I"ll run becasue it's fabulous therapy, and much cheaper. I'll run because God gave me the tools to do it with. I'll run because I'm a runner.

Jolly Roger 2000 and injury update

2007-03-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

In December I heard about this group called Jolly Roger 2000 Mile Club. The group pays tribute to Steve Prefontaine's participation in the Pirate 2000 Mile Club. The idea is to keep track of your mileage and Roger Soler Sports (hence the name Jolly Roger) is offering incentives for the mileage people accumulate during the year.
Of course there is no way that I could possibly run 2,000 miles this year. That averages out to about 6 miles a day, and who has time for that when you run an 11 minute/mile pace? So I set a goal of 1,000 miles. But have been falling far behind the 3 miles a day I need to average. This of course was quite disappointing. I mean it's only March and I'm already realizing I might not reach my goal! I've only accumulated 150 miles this year. The worse part was I couldn't run for a week because of my ankles. And the only thing that makes me feel better when I'm feeling defeated, is running. So there I was defeated by running, and unable to undefeat myself.

So, I went to a new podiatrist on Wednesday, who was not only very thorough, but works with a lot of local runners. To make a long story short he told me all I really need are some good orthotics for my shoes. The way my feet are formed causes a lot of pronation therefore causing all the ankle issues.
The good news is I've been wearing them for 2 days and I've had my first 2 pain free runs since the 3m half marathon in late January. My knees also feel better.

So for now I'm going to keep trying for 3 miles a day, still making sure to listen to my body.

Up next in the racing calendar is the Capital 10,000 in Austin (10k=6.2 miles) and the race I'm super excited about the Charlotte Racefest Half marathon in April. I'm really looking forward to running in Charlotte, it's so gorgeous there, and I love running races in unfamiliar territory!

AT&T Marathon photos

2007-02-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

Action Sports International, the "offical race photographers" posted photos online today.

This one has to be my favorite! I can be such a cheese ball during races :)

Who Am I?

2007-02-23T15:09:00.000-08:00

The thing about running in San Antonio is that the city isn't equipped with trails like they have in Austin. The Town Lake Hike and Bike trail is heaven, especially compared with running in the streets in San Antonio. Let's face it, we didn't get to be the second fattest city by being exercise friendly. The sidewalks are limited and don't even get me started on the lack of streetlights, which is why I always run during the day. Still I'm constantly worried about being run over when I run here.
As part of that fear I'm worried I'll be made into Jam and no one will know who I am. So I'm going to buy a Road ID. They have wrist, ankle, shoe and dogtag-like IDs. I'm torn between getting the wrist ID or the shoe ID. I think the shoe ID would be most convienent, as it would always be on my shoe and there is little chance of it being forgotten at home, or misplaced, if it's constantly strapped to my shoe. However, I'm wondering if an EMT or anyone else who would need my information would have an easier time seeing the wrist strap. Any thoughts?

Austin Marathon Photos

2007-02-22T20:13:00.000-08:00

Here are two images from the Austin Marathon, courtesy Matt Boerger

Picture #1, before the marathon...I'm either crazy, cold or scared. :)

Picture #2, after the marathon, no longer crazy, cold or scared, just happy to be done.

Two half marathons, two medals

2007-02-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

The Austin Marathon and Half Marathon were on Sunday. And I have another fabulous medal to show for my efforts. I finished in 2:28 according to my "official chip time" that's 2 minutes faster than I did the 3M half marathon which is supposed to be a faster course since it's "mostly downhill." I think having Allison there to push me through the first 10 miles really helped a lot. She's the best running partner a girl could ask for. One of the best things about her is that she always has stories to tell me during our runs. It's completely entertaining and a great way to keep up with her life. And she totally kicked marathon butt, finishing in 4:48:12. An even 11 minute/mile pace.
She is my hero and I'm very proud of her.
Of course it wouldn't be as exciting if I didn't hurt myself.
Yes, that's right, I hurt my ankle, again. Only this time it's my right ankle. It completely gave out on me after the run. I fell down and had to be helped up by some runners in the area and I hobbled over to the medical tent, with the help of said fabulous runners. The wonderful volunteers gave me some ice, then rubbed me down for about 30 minutes, until all the tenderness in my ankle had gone away.
I don't know why I keep doing this to my body, oh wait, yes I do, the medals.
The thing is my ankle hurt at about mile 8. And I had this conversation with myself:
Self, this kinda hurts a whole lot right now.
Yes, I know self, but what are we supposed to do? If we stop and have someone look at it now, we won't even be able to hobble the rest of the way back in and then we won't get a medal.
I know that self, so what do you suggest?
I suggest we let the adrenaline do it's job and suck it up.

Which I did, I sucked it up. The hills in Austin SUCK, especially the giant hill at mile 11 as you're running over Lamar on 15th street and all you see is more hill in front of you. At mile 12 I knew I was toast (but not pancakes or jam), but also knew I could finish.

Some highlights.
First of all they had fireworks at the beginning. Fireworks, at 7 am. I've never seen it done before. It was pretty entertaining. And the cool thing is those fireworks were for us. Not for some over paid baseball players, but people who run because they can. It's pretty fabulous.

Second, we ran on the grounds of the Capital and around the building, which is pretty cool in itself.
And the best part of the races is once you round the Capital and see Congress in front of you, it's ALL downhill from there. (OK, that's not the best part, the best part is the medal)

So now I have a cool new medal, #3 for those of you counting (have I mentioned that I love the medals?), and Allison's great success has made me want to run another full marathon. I'm hoping to run the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. in October. If running past the Texas Capital is a cool feeling, I can't imagine what it would be like to run past the White House!