Dec. 5, 2010: Dallas White Rock Marathon

Winter time in Rochester...

Believe it or not, I initially hoped to post this race story before 2011 got underway, but clearly that did not happen. I had a great race experience, loved this marathon, and would definitely run it again! This was the last beautiful, warm-weather, sunny day run I've had as I now count down the days of the long cold winter to SPRING!! Although, I did have double IT band pain for most of the 26.2 miles and a slower finishing time than I prefer, I still count this as a great marathon. Obviously, completing an Ironman, a half-iron tri, a marathon, and then another marathon, all within 3 months- is a recipe that equals SLOW! :)

The Weather: Beautiful! Sunny! Cool at the start at around 30 degrees but it warmed up to the 40's and was a perfect sunny run in a skirt and long sleeved shirt. I didn't feel the least bit cold and recognized it would be my last sunny, dry pavement run for awhile since my home in Rochester was getting dumped on that day! (SNOW!)

The Course and the Crowd: I loved the course, it took us briefly through the downtown area, then through several nice neighborhoods where the homeowners were out on their lawns cheering the runners on all day! Lots of people complain about the 9 mile loop around the lake that begins around mile 12, and some years it can be chilly and windy. Surprisingly, I enjoyed this part of the run, it wasn't cool or windy, and since I had never run there before, it was beautiful. The only two hills of the entire race come at mile 20 and are nothing to worry about, not steep or long, over pretty fast. Definitely a course I would run again and hope for no nagging injury pains to get in the way.

ITB: My IT bands started hurting on both sides relatively early in the race, well before the halfway point. By mile 14 I had started stopping at every mile marker to briefly stretch both sides. This helped me run through the pain mentally knowing I could stop and stretch at those places and every stretch helped a bit though the pain never went away. I've had worse IT pain in other marathons and training runs in years past, but it was definitely there and nagging.

Number Nineteen: Woo Hoo!!! I made it to the finish line of my nineteenth marathon and I realized a long time ago that if I intended to run as many marathons as I can, that they certainly won't all be fast or PR's, so I'm happy to have finished it! And now I plan on triathlons too for the rest of my life, including an Ironman every 2 or 3 years, so I'm going to enjoy every day that I'm able to be out there! But I do plan to focus on speed and get a fast marathon under my belt again. Time will tell...

Will I go back? Absolutely! I loved meeting up with my old running friends from one of my first ever running groups in Arkansas for this race! Also, I have family in Dallas which makes it easy to travel there when I get to visit with them, too, in addition to a marathon. Besides, December is great running weather in Dallas!

View from the front steps of my house...

Winter Update: Since the day I got back, we have had steady, constant snow on the ground in Rochester. There are plenty of days when there is dry, clean pavement to run on despite the piles of snow on the ground itself. There are also days when the roads are snowy and like running in sand even though they've been plowed, not my favorite. If you have to run on snow, the best kind is frozen and icy and you just run right on top of it with that crunchy snow sound all around you. There are also days in the teens and single digits, or days with wind! After that, days in the 20's and 30's feel almost perfect in comparison! I had a blast running a 4 mile snow shoe race a couple weeks back. It was a gorgeous trail run through the woods with everything completely snow covered. Temps were below zero that day, but there was no wind and running in snow shoes is such a workout that I was literally HOT out there! Seriously! I'm just enjoying running, training for nothing, hitting a spin class here and there, a new thing for me, and still making it to my favorite yoga studio 1 to 3 times a week. Of course I still meet up with my fabulous running friends every Saturday for our weekly long runs. Excited for March when we might start getting less snow and warmer temps....one can only hope! :)

Running a Turkey Race with Mom

Mom and I, post-race, we didn't plan to match! :)

Thanksgiving Day 2010 marked my Mom's first time to ever run 5 miles, and she chose a race to meet the distance goal! I decided to skip out on a local 10K race here at home in Rochester, NY, which I've run the previous two years since moving here, and went home a day early so I could race with my Mom.

Turkey Day morning we awoke to chilly temps and steady rain! But of course that didn't stop us from putting on our running clothes and running shoes to head out the door to the race. Along the 20 minute drive from my parent's house to the start line, we were laughing at ourselves for what we were about to experience!

We parked and ran from the car to packet pick-up, which was a small tent where other runners were huddled picking up racing numbers. Race bibs and goody bags in tow, we ran back to the car to wait a few more minutes, hoping the rain would lessen. Up until now we were relatively dry since we had rain jackets on, but I had to shed mine down to racing clothes in order to go and stand in the porta line before the race started. Standing in line, I got SOAKED! Oh well, what are you gonna' do??

Finally it was time to line up at the start, and we did! The race director led a pre-race prayer, which I thought was awesome. This race benefitted a shelter that helped homeless women and children called Hope Alive. It was humbling to think of others with no shelter from the cold and rain that we were experiencing at that very moment.

The gun went off and everyone was running! A half mile in we met our first big hill! I just pushed up to the top and started praying for my Mom to be able to run strong on that hill when she got there. This race was all through country roads and turned out to be full of big rolling hills! What a great course for your first 5 miles! (Insert sarcasm.) However, the rain actually stopped completely by the end of my first mile and it was suddenly great running weather! The only thing cold on me were my hands and after two miles they warmed up and were fine for the whole race.

I finished and then ran back out along the course to meet up with my Mom and run her in. I came to her after about .75 miles, turned around and ran in with her. She was doing amazing! Her pace was steady and strong, she had done fine on all of the hills we'd encountered, and was able to easily have a conversation with me. There we were, running it in, and talking. I'm so proud of her! She ran her first 5 miles ever, and she just turned 60 in August. But what else would you expect from a Mother of 5 and a High School English teacher? She also has always had major bicep muscles even though she's never lifted weights until recent years. (She always used to say "From carrying groceries and babies..." while flexing her cool muscles at our insistent requests--usually at the dinner table.)

I finished in 39:27, which was 33 seconds slower than I finished a flat 5 mile race last April, but I'm happy with it. Mom finished her first ever 5 miles in 56:21, hills, rain, cold, and all! At the end we posed for a picture with a runner who ran the entire race in a full-on turkey costume, too funny! By the way, this race was called the "Wattle Waddle: Thanksgiving Day 5 Mile Race," get it??? The turkey has a "wattle" and we all were going to "waddle" to the finish line? Cute, huh?

Gobble, Gobble!!!

Congrats Mom! I have big plans for her, next up a 10K, and one day a half marathon, and I'll leave my other goals for her unwritten... :)

I did run the Dallas White Rock Marathon on Dec. 5 and totally loved the course, though I had a painful race due to my IT bands. I'll run it again one year and will blog about it soon, marathon #19 was a success!

October 31, 2010: MCM pics

Colin and I post-race, hooray for his FIRST marathon!

My Thoughts/Opinion: I know it has been weeks since the marathon, but I am just now getting a chance to post some pics after being out of town for awhile. My apologies for such a late race story on this one, seems like it was ages ago now! Suffice it to say I spent the first 7 miles ticked off at how crowded it was and frustrated that I couldn't just settle into a pace! On the other hand, it was a beautiful sunny day and the weather was perfect to me. I found the course very pretty and actually really liked running the hills, it was a nice change of terrain. But there were several parts that got even more crowded, I felt, because of the way they routed us. The "bridge" was seemingly un-ending and I was dying of thirst at that point, not my favorite part of the race! I've done other large city marathons that I thought handled the crowd of participants a bit better. I've never had to come to a dead stop when crossing the finish line. And I've never had to stand and wait in line for a medal. Usually it's all one smooth flowing motion, finishers just walk through and all of those things are taken care of with no stopping. At any rate, it's all in the past at this point and I'm happy to have been able to reach the finish line. Of course I did way too much weaving and my Garmin read 26.75 miles when I finished! My friend Steph cut every corner as tightly as she could and ended up with precisely 26.2, so lesson learned for me! No weaving!

Me with my girlfriends from Rochester, Steph and Wendy. :)

SIGNS: It seems like there is rarely a shortage of signs to read along the course of an endurance race. There were several shirts listing family members who were veterans which were moving to read. There were other more comical ones, like the back of one shirt that read "Dear God, please let there be someone behind me to read this!" And my favorite sideline sign at around 24 miles read "Embrace the Suck!" Oh yeah, that is most definitely the "sucky" time of the race! It made me laugh and reflect on how I should embrace it because is was near the END!

left to right: My Mom's siblings Uncle Mike, Aunt Lisa, Austin (Mike's son-in-law), me, Colin. We were all a little chilly at this point!

THE HILL: All through the later miles in the race I was prepping myself mentally for the infamous hill at mile 26. In my mind that sucker was vertical and huge and I told myself that no matter how bad I felt and how awful the hill was, I would not walk! Not that there is any shame in walking, I just didn't want to walk that close to the finish line. I wanted to power through and reach the finish without walking up that last hill! Let me tell you, building something up to the worst possible thing you can imagine is a great strategy! When I finally got to the hill I'd been dreading, it looked nothing like I was expecting and I picked up the pace a bit and sailed to the top! Of course my overall pace wasn't exactly speedy and stellar, but I did finish and added that 18th notch to my mental race belt. Ahhhh, the finish line.

A few more race day pics...

Some pics from the day after the race...

My first time to see the WWII Memorial which was very cool.

Colin next to his home state at the WWII Memorial.

As close as we were allowed to get to the White House.

The whole weekend was definitely one to remember and to celebrate the gift of being able to run. Getting to share it with friends and family make it even more memorable. Congrats to ALL who ran this marathon and know that I was praying for all of the runners that I knew out there on the course! You guys all rocked it! So proud of everyone! Until the next time.... :)

2010 Marine Corps Marathon and 10K Running Skirts in Action

WOW!!! I've never made it on a skirt video before in a marathon! My friend Wendy posted this on her facebook page. She is at 19 seconds in the red dotted skirt and Mini Mouse ears with a big smile on her face! I'm at 57 seconds in a hot pink skirt and black tank. YAY for us!

It was gorgeous weather in DC for the entire weekend! Colin and I had a great time, loved where we stayed, loved being in the city, and both crossed the finish line and got our medals! He ran his FIRST marathon, woo hoo!!! So proud of him, he powered through despite major leg cramping from mile 16 to the end, yikes! He finished in 4:55 and plans to run another one when he has time to train, work schedule was nuts for him this time around. Plus he sprained his ankle at the end of August and lost 3 weeks of training. Congrats to him on becoming a marathoner!

I finished right back in the time zone of my first two marathons, uggh! But I was really burned out and tired from the all the tri's this summer, mainly the Ironman and then the half-iron in September, just had no speed in training so I knew it wouldn't be there race day. BUT I did finish and got the medal, in 4:31.

This was my 18th marathon, something to celebrate right? I signed up for Dallas White Rock Marathon on Dec. 5 because I don't know if I'll get to run one this spring if we are moving, lots of "up in the air" things in life right now. And I figure if I rest up, don't do any long runs that will beat me down, get out there and hit some speedwork, I can at least run a 4:29! Ha ha! Seriously, it would be nice to run around a 4 hour or 4:15, not trying to BQ, just trying to bank on my training and take a little time off. PLUS my friends from Arkansas are running and I get to meet up with them and stay in the same hotel with them! And I will get to see two nieces and a nephew who LIVE there! Can't beat it! Besides, I've never run this marathon before. Did I convince you why I need to run it yet? :)

Most of the fun is hanging out with your friends at the finish and talking about the race! My two girlfriends from Rochester, Wendy and Steph (okay, actually she is from Canada!) met at the expo and at the finish and hashed out our race stories. I also loved meeting up with my Aunt Lisa who ran a 4:36, she has run Boston 5 times and is going back again this spring. My Uncle Mike, (Lisa's brother, both are my Mom's siblings...) ran a 3:33 and he's 54! His fastest marathon time is 3:08 which he ran not too long ago. I can't help but brag on their running times!!! (Lisa's PR is 3:45, since I'm in the bragging zone...) My cousin's husband, Austin, also ran this marathon on limited training time and STILL finished! And one of the most special finishers, Jen, my sis-in-law, ran her FIRST marathon in 5:03! Sadly we didn't get to meet up though we did try! I'm really SAD about that! But oh so proud of her! You can read her 6 posts about her first marathon on her blog.

I didn't mean to make this post so long. I will post a real story about my race soon, and will throw in a few pictures. Just wanted to share the skirt video and give a basic re-cap. CONGRATS to all of you who rocked the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon!!!

September 19: Last Tri of the Season

Me, Kim and Steph the day before the race, I love these girls! We have the best time training together-biking all summer, training swims in the lake, running, and yoga. Kim drove us to the Syracuse Half Ironman Tri in her "tri-mobile" a fabulous minivan with all the bells and whistles that carries us, our three bikes and all of our race gear. We shared a hotel room and headed to the start in the dark as night, rainy race day morning together.

Honestly, I really had to psych myself up for this last tri of the season. I'm so glad I had a couple of girlfriends to go with to the race and several other friends there racing as well. After the full ironman and training all summer, I was kind of ready for the end of the season. If the weather had been gorgeous for this race, I may have been a little more motivated. The day before the race was beautiful, sunny, near 70 degrees but race day was drizzly rain, dark, cold-you get the idea.

The Swim: Water temp was 61 which is pretty chilly. I actually didn't mind it too much and felt good in my wetsuit. Some people complained that their feet and faces were freezing but I felt decent all through, We swam in a rectangle in a reservoir for 1.2 miles. The water was calm and the way out was really nice, easy to sight and went by so fast. It was a wave swim start so everyone started in their age groups. Before I knew it I was nearing the finish and the best part of the whole race day was the wet suit peelers! No triathlons have this except Ford Ironman's and Ford Half-Ironman's. Volunteers meet you at the end of the swim, you lay on the ground and they strip your wetsuit off for you! This is amazing and if you've ever taken your own wetsuit on and off you appreciate the effort and time it saves to have two people peel your wetsuit off for you in SECONDS!

The Bike: The route was great! We trained on it once and it was a fiasco, pouring rain that day, felt like HILLS for MILES, and we got lost to top it all off!!!! Ended up with almost 70 miles and had a lot of fun laughing at ourselves and created a lot of inside jokes that day! (This was myself, Kim and Steph...) Well race day, the ride went much better! It was a hilly route, but fun to ride. The only downside for me was that it was a drizzly rain and foggy, which made it hard to push and ride hard because I didn't want to slide around or wreck on wet pavement. My max speed on one of the downhills was still 42.4 miles per hour! I wore arm warmers, tri shorts and a tank for the entire ride and was glad to have my arms covered, still cold pretty much the whole ride.

The Run: Uggh!!!! At least the rain stopped on the run. I was not a fan of the route which was a point to point 13.1 mile run that eventually put us on a 4 lane highway that went past all these really attractive strip malls. At least the people in the cars cheered for the runners, or some of them did. The runners had a lane all to ourselves, wow. To top it off, I was pretty tired and my IT band started hurting, I couldn't wait to reach the finish line which I did, FINALLY!

Overall, my friends and I all raced well and enjoyed the day. After I finished the rain cleared and it turned into a sunny afternoon, go figure! Weather affects me so much, I think I would have felt entirely different during the race if it had a been a nicer day. Logistically this race was my least favorite. We had to drive 10 miles or so from the host hotel to reach the transition area and race start. Race morning it took us 30 minutes, and some who left later took even longer, because of the long line of cars full of all the race participants trying to get to the same place. Then because the run was a point-to-point, it ended 13.1 miles from the race start and all of our gear, so we had to take shuttles back to the start to get our things and drive home. But we did get medals for finishing and made a few more triathlon memories together! I'm glad I got to do this race and was able to complete it. I don't want to take for granted that I can be out there doing it. Regardless of weather, you have to tough it out on race day, not just on the perfect day. Besides, when does "life" ever give us a "perfect" day everyday? :)

Overall Finish- 6:13:16

Swim- 39:25

T1- 6:58

Bike- 3:14:37

T2- 3:50

Run- 2:08:26

IM Wrap-Up Pics

Waiting in line for the swim start. The line stretched for more than a mile. nice face, huh? I didn't get to jump off the dock to start the swim until 45 minutes after the official start time.

This is the end of the 2.4 mile swim, the final bouy, and then we swam to the steps to exit the water.

Swim complete-woohoo! Now off to transition to the changing tent to get ready for the bike! During the run from the swim exit to transition, I saw my Aunt Lisa and Rose cheering me on and again as I exited on my bike! Colin actually took these pics but somehow I didn't see him!

Final push to the finish of 112 miles of rolling, hilly, gorgeous country side and horse farms galore! Only downside was that is was in full sun with no shade and temps topped out at 94 degrees. Lisa and Rose were out on the course when I hit 70 miles, what a boost to have them cheering! I got to see the whole crew when they took this pic! At the end of the ride I was completely covered in a thick layer of salt. During the bike ride I actually had a headache within the first two hours. I worked hard to drink even more and loosened my ponytail a little thinking maybe that would ease the headache.

This is what the end of a tough 26.2 mile run looks like! I was beyond happy to see the finish line. It was a double out and back run course and we literally ran right up to the finish line at mile 13ish and had to turn right to do the out and back loop again. It was not a scenic run in the least, pretty much torture to run in my dehydrated state! I got to run with several people along the way, chatting some and helping each other through small stretches of the run. A huge upside was getting to see Colin, my cousins Rose and Julia, and my Aunt Lisa all throughout the run. They were fabulous!

Sporting my hard earned medal and chatting about the day at the finish line... :)

I was so much more fatigued after this Ironman than my first one and I think it was because it was so much hotter. Literally felt better to squat then to stand upright! This is me talking to my sister Kellee on my cell, she had been following the race and talking to Colin all day. :) I had to sit on a curb and drink some water before I could walk back to the hotel... Last IM I felt fine to walk around, stand and talk and it was no big deal to get my gear and get to the hotel. This time Colin got me to the hotel and then went out to pick up my bike and all my gear for me, what a keeper!

Julia, Lisa, Me not being able to stand up anymore, and Rose! Julia has done a sprint tri previously, Lisa has run LOTS of marathons including Boston 5 times and counting, Rose is an amazing runner and marathoner with a PR of something like 3:24.

Safely back home again the day after the race, proudly wearing my finishers hat and a t-shirt that says "Ironman Louisville." It was fun but I never plan to do this HOT Ironman race again! Goodbye Louisville! Hello to future IM cities like Tempe, Arizona or Madison, Wisconsin and definitely would go back to Panama City Beach, Florida!

Next up Syracuse 70.2 Triathlon on Sep. 19 and then Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 31.

Ironman Louisville Preview....Post One

Well, I finished the IM in some seriously hot weather conditions. It was a dig deep kind of day that took lots of prayer, and I was so thankful to cross the finish line. There's really nothing like the sight of the finish line after a seemingly never ending race day! I knew I would be slower then my first IM but I ended up an hour and 45 minutes slower. Try that for your ego!!!! But truly it was the best I could do, it was a completely different race course and city, and the biggest difference was the weather. I will gradually go through the swim-bike-run that took me 15:00:54 in future posts. But first a preview...

HIGH POINTS:

The Finish Line!!!!!!!!!!!!

Colin-my husband there cheering me on, not to mention he went and picked up all my gear and bike post-race, and listened to me about everything all through the weekend...

Aunt Lisa and Cousins Rose and Julia-drove 2 hours to meet for dinner the night before and cheered me all through the entire long race day! They rocked! Took lots of pics too!

Ohio River proved to be easy water to swim in, brown and murky, but not stinky.

Fun rolling hills on the bike course!

Met a few people to chat with briefly along the run course!

Pulled myself through the run by cheering on the other runners in the later darker miles of the course and then got called "Skirt Girl" and asked "How I could be so perky?" by those same runners. :)

LOW POINTS:

That this thing was in AUGUST!!!! In Kentucky!!!!!

That it was 94 degrees and the bike course was in FULL SUN!!!!

An aid station on the bike course ran out of water (just didn't get replenished quickly enough...) so I went without for 12 miles or so, not fun. (I had half a bottle of warm gatorade on my bike, better then nothing.)

Had a headache for the first hour or two of the bike, it was hot out there. Kept drinking gatorade and pushing to get better hydrated.

Cried at mile 5.86 of the run because I felt so bad, dehydration bad feeling in my head, not really muscles. Another runner coming back on the other side of the road said, "It's okay, we ALL feel like that, keep going!!!" So I sucked it up, quit my crying, and kept going!

Run course was a double out and back straight shot with no turns, very boring, and we had to do it TWICE! AND at mile 14 we had to run right up to the finish line but instead of going down the chute to the end, we turned left and went back out for the second boring out and back loop. You could see and hear the screaming crowd and the people finishing. good times.

HYDRATION and NUTRITION:

Bike-Drank 4 aero bottles of water, 2 sports drink bottles, 5 hours worth of Hammer Perpetuem (900 calories), 4 mini Clif bars (100 calories each), 2 Clif Shot Blocks packages (200 calories each), half a banana from an aid station.

Run-Drank Nuun (3 tablets worth spaced out, needed more), straight water, sports drink (not sure how much, drank it at the aid stations as needed.), 4 GU gel packs (100 calories each).

[Aid stations had lots of food and choices but I just can't eat on the run which is why I try to really take it all in on the bike.]

WEIGHT CHANGES:

Friday: weighed in at athlete check-in 4 lbs heavier than my normal which was a result of minimal workouts for the two previous taper weeks, not a big deal. Body water was at 50 percent which was good. (anything from 45 to 60 is good.)

Sunday Race Day: CALORIE BURN was 13,020, craziness!!!!!

Tuesday: a full day after the race I weighed 9 pounds LESS than I did at the athlete weigh-in!

Wednesday: back to my normal weight, not the extra 4 lbs. I had at the athlete weigh-in but at what I've been weighing all summer.

RECOVERY:

Feel better than after a marathon, not sure why??? Quads were a little sore Mon-Tues but not Wednesday, left hamstring is a still a little tight. Overall, I feel pretty good. I did NOT feel so great at the finish line, tired and hard to stand up then!

Monday-drove the 9.5 hours home.

Tuesday-3 mile walk plus a 1 mile jog. (hadn't planned to run but was in a hurry to get back and it didn't hurt.)

Wednesday-very easy 1.5 hour slow paced bike ride.

Thursday-went out to bike 30 miles with my friend but felt so great that I biked 5o miles instead! Would not have done it if I didn't feel good, no soreness during or after and pace was decent. (15.8, not bad for a few days after IM)

the rest of the week? lake swim on Friday and a short run on Saturday.

Why am I recovering so well??? I think because it was sooooooo incredibly hot at the IM that I couldn't go all out like I had trained up for and now I've still got some in the tank. Too bad I can't go try again for faster in an upcoming IM but they fill up a year in advance and my husband would flat out leave me! ha! Not really, but he definitely would not be in favor! I mean, I'm definitely doing MORE of these things, I'm hooked and want to get faster, but I won't being doing one in the fall! :)

COMING SOON: Maybe some short posts and more pictures, one about the swim, one about the bike, and a final one about the run. Trying to keep it shorter. But of course this one is completely long. Sorry.