Chicago Marathon - FINISHED!

I did it!!!  With the help of my friends, I finished the Chicago Marathon.  We had such a great time!  The race turned out to have perfect weather - 40-50 degrees.  I struggled though.  My legs started hurting in the very beginning.  My right calf/achilles was hurting.  I was just running along with my friends and trying to put it out of my mind.  Part of the problem is my shoes are worn out.  Part of the soles have lost their treads.  Completely my fault for not getting a new pair a month ago or so.  My feet started hurting around mile 6 and my legs started aching around mile 8.  Yikes.  I was in for a long race.  I didn't say anything and just tried to keep positive thoughts in my head.  

Finding my name at the expo on the big board of participants

Mom and I waiting for the drawbridge when we went shopping Saturday morning.

breakfast at the grand lux.  Yum!  Beignets and coffee!

Love Chicago!!

Holly, Debbie, me and Brooke Saturday afternoon.  Catching up in the hotel.

Pre race, ready to run!

 My friend Holly paced us.  We all had our our UT head bands she bought us.  It was awesome having her because she is much faster and had done this a few times and pulled us through those last tough miles.  There was a group of 5 of us running and Holly and I got separated for a few miles from the others, but miraculously we found them after seeing them about 40 yards ahead of us on a jumbo tron set up around mile 18.  I took cliff shot blocks and gu, tried to take gatorade and water at most aid stations.  Chicago does an amazing job of having the aid stations set up ever 1-2 miles it seems.  My legs were aching every step from 14 miles+.  My garmin was all over the place, between running under overpasses and between skyscrapers, it wasn't that accurate except for keeping up with running time.  The final miles it shows was 26.57 which may be accurate with all the weaving and turns.  I just don't know.  It says my average pace was 9:33 but actually it was 9:50 officially from the race.  But the total time was the same... 4:13!  The cool part to me was we crossed the 1/2 way point at 2:05 and finished with very close to the same pace.  The only walking we did was a few steps when taking our gatorade or water.  This was such a mental thing for me.  after getting to 15, I was shooting for mile 18, then mile 20.  Then just every mile after that.  I said, just keep moving, just keep moving. Debbie and I were dying those last few miles, but Holly kept cheering us on.  I could have lost my emotions a few times those last 6 miles, but I sucked it up.  When I stopped running after crossing the finish line, my legs hurt soooooo bad but luckily one of holly's friends handed me an advil and that helped lots.  I hung out a few minutes with my friends and headed back to the hotel to get a shower and then drove 7 hours home with my mom.  I drove.  I'm a bit sore today, a lot sore, but I'll survive.  I will never forget this.  My friend Holly talked me into it, and I'm so grateful.  Just to know I could do it, that I could push through the pain.  I'm not sure if I hit the wall around mile 17, but whatever it was it was tough.  I never stopped.  I couldn't have done it without Holly and Debbie there, it was such a great experience.  And I have a medal to prove it wasn't all just a dream. :)




I also raised over $300 for Compassion International!  Thanks to all my friends and family who donated!!

Warrior Dash

Well it was an experience!  Crazy, and dangerous, and fun.  My friends and I had a great time, I ended up 39th in my age group out of 877 and 115th overall out of 2748.  I'll take it!  It was a tough course, swimming through muddy creeks... really swimming because it was deep and climbing over logs in the water, Balancing over uneven boards, climbing up and over walls, up and over high cargo nets, crawling through fields under barbed wire, crawling through trenches, jumping over fire, crawling through mud underneath barbed wire.... well I'm sure that isn't all but most of it.  The part we ran was crazy too.  Very rocky and easy to get hurt.  Slippery and steep through these trails in the woods... sometimes you had to climb up the hills literally.  I'm pretty sore today, but happy with the results.  Now, to play in a soccer tourney next weekend... hmmmm.

Country Music 1/2 - race report

I think in my last post I mentioned I felt bad.  Well it got worse.  To the point that  Thursday evening I didn't want to pack or do anything.  I would sit on the couch and rest for 30 minutes and get up and pack and organize our stuff for 10, then I'd have to sit again.  I felt MISERABLE.  Started getting body aches and thought I had a fever.  Freezing, sweating, couldn't breathe as my nose was completely clogged and my throat sore.  Great, I thought.  Friday I was to go on a field trip with the Kindergardeners to a dairy farm all day then head straight to Nashville to drop them with my parents and go to pick up my race packet at the Expo (a large feat considering the crowds and traffic at that time).  I was in no condition to do any of it.  I thought I was going to have to bail on the whole thing.  Blessings of all blessings though, I ended up having some night time decongestant in the cabinet that had never been opened.  Must have been on sale.  It was one of those packs with night and day medicine.  Yes.  I got everything loaded in the car and took a pill and went to bed.  Slept a bit though very restless.  The next morning I could NOT wake.  The medicine was still affecting me I guess.  When I dragged myself into the bathroom, my eyes were bloodshot and swollen, my nose all nasty... it was seriously pitiful.

The boys got up and I had a serious conversation with the Kindergardener.  My thinking was, if I could just get a few more hours rest and skip the field trip, I might be able to swing this race.  Unfortunately for me, He was having none of that.  Mommy said she was going and if she doesn't go, he's having a fit.  And his fits are those that make you feel so guilty.  He has the sweetest little pouty face and whimper.  I couldn't do it to him.  So I chugged some coffee and took a daytime pill.  I dropped them off and went to clean out the car since his teacher was riding with me.  The field trip was fun and I was feeling ok, but it was really cold.  Took another pill at lunch.  Picked up the other boy after the field trip and we headed out to Nashville.  The rest of the day was ok and I decided I was going to try to race.  I stayed up late watching the Predators play in the NHL playoffs and wasn't in bed until after 11:30.  Didn't want to take the night time meds for fear of not being able to get up. Slept none until 1 when the Kindergardener had a bad dream and decided to sleep with me.  Kicked me once, twice, three times.  I slept across the foot of the bed.  And "slept" is used loosely here.  5 am alarm came quick. I was up and jumped in the shower.  considering how I felt the morning before, I was not that bad.  Still stuffy head but manageable.

I went outside in a singlet and shorts to get in the car and it was already hot.  Crap.  Dad dropped me off at the race and I used the portapotty and headed to gear check.  I swear you walk 2 miles before the race even starts if not more.  It was getting hotter.  Got in my corral and noticed the 2 hr pacer.  Initially, before the illness, I had aspirations of staying with him... they faded quick.  The sun came out and it was hot.  I think the first 2 miles were ok.  I had a modest pace of 9:15 or so but haven't checked my splits.  My legs never felt good though.  Did I mention how hot it was?  After mile 2, every mile was a struggle.  I usually get to 6 pretty easily and then tell myself to get to 10 and then get to the end.  This time I was telling myself to get to 4, then 5, then 6.... yes, every mile was a struggle.  I  took everything offered - gatorade, water, oranges, salt... I had taken a gu before the race and at mile 7 I took another.  I felt like I was running underwater.  THE. WHOLE. RACE.  Never had such a bad experience.  It was so hot.  Nashville is a very hilly race.  You are constantly going up or down, but mostly up.  I felt sick a couple of times, got chills around mile 8.  Kept going.  I think the last 5 miles are a blur.  I really don't remember many details except finishing and seeing 2:15 on my watch.  It was bad.  I had given up on any type of time goal around mile 4, but 2:15?  2:06 was my previous worst.

After a few hours of thinking about it, I gained some perspective.  Remembering how absolutely awful I felt Friday morning, it's quite the miracle I was even able to run.  My husband called me afterwards and was even surprised I made it.  He said usually he isn't worried, but after seeing me Thursday night and Friday morning, he didn't think I would be able to do it.

I definitely have second and third thoughts and apprehensions about the Chicago Marathon, but I also now have experience pushing through a bunch of painful miles.  If I can train all summer, this experience may actually help me in my marathon.  I know this is long, but it will be good for me to look back on and remember all I went through to finish the race.  And instead of feeling like a failure due to my slow time, I actually feel like I did accomplish something by finishing.

Mini Marathon

I haven't been able to view my official results yet.  And I haven't downloaded my Garmin to see my splits, I just know I ran slow.  And it hurt.  From mile 8 on, my hips and then the rest of my legs were screaming at me.  Part of me loves it, that I can push through the pain and finish.  But the other part of me is baffled.  I ran a whole 10 minutes faster last year.  I knew I wouldn't come close to that time, but I was hoping I would at least have been closer than this.  This is the 3rd slowest 1/2 I have ever run.  Boo.  Hoping that Nashville, hills and all, will be better.  We'll see... 4 weeks from yesterday.

10k on a whim

Decided to run a local 10k yesterday morning.  Not bad, ran in 8:41 avg... 53:50 or so.  About a minute and 1/2 off my PR, but not bad with the hilly course and the lack of training I have been doing.  Felt nice to run a race again since it had been 6 months!!

Emotional Race

This past week has been an emotional race for me.  My dad had heart surgery on Thursday - very surprising - and so I was in the hospital all day Thursday and Friday, then yesterday after the race.  He is holding his own, still in ICU with minor complications, but stable.  I did run the Country Music 1/2 marathon yesterday.  I did not once feel good during the race like I have in past races.  The whole thing was a struggle.  But I thought of my dad and how he would love to be anywhere but in that hospital with all that pain.  I thought of how he use to run, and instilled in me a love of sport and competition.  It kept me going over all of the hills and to the finish in 2:01.  Another day, I would be so disappointed in this time.  But on this day, during the midst of this trial, I was happy to do it and happy to be done with it.  It hurt but it was a good hurt.  A hurt that one day may keep me off of that operating table.  I ran for my dad.

1/2 Marathon

Ok, this is the deal.  I did not want to run the morning of the race.  It was FREEZING cold and suppose to rain, though it didn't.  It was cloudy and there was a 10 mph wind.  The course was out and back.  I was putting on my timing sensor tag and when I bent down I did something to my knee and thought there was no way I could run.  It hurt for the next hour before the race and I wasn't sure I would make it.  I have never wanted to not run a race so badly!!  I was afraid I would start it and then have to stop.  So I started a little slowly with some friends running their first 1/2 marathon.  I felt ok so I picked up the pace.  Someone had told me that I needed to run a faster first 1/2 of the course because it was an out and back course, and the way back would be directly into the wind. He was right.  When I turned around during mile 7 it was crazy windy right in my face.  So much so I now have wind burn on my face!  But I felt good while I was out there.  The last two miles my legs were seizing up, IT Band issues and also the cold... but I made it almost the exact same time as my last one.  If I can train the next 3 weeks, I am going to try to go all out at the Nashville 1/2 and PR even though it's totally a hilly course.  Now I have a serious cold that I'm fighting... not sure if it's from the race or my 6 year old's soccer game in the rain that afternoon.  But it's brutal. I may live though.


Splits:
Mile 1:  8:56  ran the first mile with some friends running their first 1/2
Mile 2:  8:39
Mile 3:  8:42
Mile 4:  8:29
Mile 5:  8:30
Mile 6:  8:18 woo hoo!
Mile 7:  8:23  the turn around
Mile 8:  9:13  why...is...it...so...windy???
Mile 9:  8:46
Mile 10: 9:09
Mile 11: 8:54
Mile 12: 9:06  I'm not going to make it.... my IT Bands are killing me!
Mile 13: 8:49
.11        : 0:46

Time 1:54:46 = 8:45 miles.

PR!!

Woo Hoo!!  Yesterday I ran the Cedars of Lebanon Frostbite 1/2 marathon in Lebanon, TN.  I ran a 1:54:35!!  The course was hillier than I anticipated, with ice still on parts, and over a mile on a gravel trail, but I felt really great and ran hard which is unusual for me.  I think my consistent training is paying off!!  Left you will see my pre-race breakfast of crunchy peanut butter and banana on whole wheat thin bagels toasted. The race didn't start until 11 am which threw off my usual pre-race routine.  I had to eat more than normal to keep me going.


Splits:
mile 1: 8:29
mile 2: 8:36
mile 3: 8:57
mile 4: 8:40
mile 5: 9:00
mile 6: 8:31
mile 7: 8:39
mile 8: 9:13
mile 9: 8:13
mile 10: 8:43
mile 11: 8:52
mile 12: 9:11
mile 13: 8:35
0.14 : 6:02

WOW!! 8:43 Average pace which is GREAT for me.  My last PR was 9:09 Average pace on a similarly hilly course.  3 months ago I would have thought you were crazy if you told me I could run this pace for a 1/2 marathon.  It's amazing what you can train your body to do!  Cool trophy above for finishing 3rd in my age group!