I made a smart decision and decided to sign up for the half marathon instead of the full marathon since I’ve only been doing a few 5-mile runs each week for the past two months. My original plan was to drive up to Ardmore on Saturday with Gus, camp with Cliff and his family, and do the race on Sunday morning. However, Gus got into some jalapeno juice and made a huge mess on our bedroom carpet on Friday night, and he could not be trusted. So I decided to get up early (3:45 am) on Sunday morning and drive to Ardmore so I could leave Gus at home. I got to the Ardmore High School stadium at around 6:00 am and picked up my packet. We boarded the buses at 6:30 am and left the stadium shortly before 7:00 am. The logistics were very well planned, and the volunteers did a great job organizing the event. I wore my sweatsuit to the start line and dropped off a clothing bag. I was anticipating losing the sweats, so that was a nice bonus. I wore a long-sleeve t-shirt over my dry-fit shirt for the first three miles and pitched it. My only mistake in planning was that I forgot to take my Garmin on the bus (I left it in my car). I had my watch though, so I just did some calculations in my head as I was running.
The gun (which was HUGE… do they start races with shotguns in Ardmore?) went off at 8 am. I staked out a spot right by the start line since there wasn’t a starting mat for the chip time. It felt like a ton of people flew by me during the first mile or two. I cruised an easy 8:44 and 8:30 the first two miles (I was aided by downhills and a tailwind). I figured I could hold close to 9-minute pace and finish in under 2 hours. I knew I needed a cushion for the last 4 miles, which were uphill. I was cruising along the first 9 miles or so, but I REALLY had to go to the bathroom. This has become a recent problem for me during races, and I need to start making some adjustments (maybe less coffee in the morning, more GI medicine, etc.). I wanted to stop, but I knew it would jeopardize breaking 2 hours, so I continued. The last few miles required some mental toughness, and I figured I would end up being 2 hours even. I heard some people talking about how their Garmins were spot on the whole way with the mile markers (since there weren’t any turns until the very end – it was a straight course) and 13.1 miles ended right at the stadium entrance, but then we had to do a lap around the track. So maybe the mileage was off just a bit? No big deal though. I was still close to my 2-hour goal (official time of 2:02:42, which is 9:22/mile pace), I was happy with my effort, and I was so incredibly excited to use the restroom!
I was 14th out of 33 in my division (25-29 females) and 76th out of 232 females. I was really surprised with the turnout. I didn’t think there would be many people doing the half or full marathons, but there were about 500 people in the half and 100 people in the full (plus a bunch of 5K participants). There were a lot of Ardmore runners, but there were also quite a few people from Oklahoma City and Dallas/Fort Worth. I didn’t realize Daris and Cheryl (from Biggest Loser) were running the 5K. I looked at the results and saw Daris ran 21:43 (gun time) in the 5K, which is 7:00/mile pace.
After the run I met Cliff and his family at their campsite for a bit and visited with them. Then I headed back to Fort Worth and inhaled a Subway sandwich on my drive home. Cliff and I had a nice, relaxing evening with our Netflix.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Thursday Thirteen
1. I’m pretty sure I’m running the Arbuckles to Ardmore half marathon on Sunday.
2. A little (crazy) part of me wants to do the full marathon since I wasn’t able to do the Cowtown Ultra, but the smart part of me knows that I haven’t trained enough these past two months and I’d be asking for an injury.
3. Cliff and his family are camping on Friday night and Saturday. I plan on joining them on Saturday, which might make for an interesting half marathon on Sunday.
4. I started yoga again on Monday and bought the 10-day pass. How’s that for commitment? It’s an expensive hobby, but my back thanks me. If only I had the discipline to stretch on my own for free.
5. I swam twice on my own last week and had two great 3,500-yard practices. It’s fun to have a buddy, but I love the flexibility of going to the pool when I want and choosing the sets that I want. I don’t write a workout… I just make stuff up as I go. I mixed in some kicking, breath control, IM work, pulling, etc.
6. I went to my friend Melissa’s powerlifting competition in Plano on Saturday morning. She’s a hoss and she bench pressed 195 pounds. Remind me not to make her mad.
7. The Jersey Shore “juicehead” term ran through my head repeatedly on Saturday morning when I was staring at some of those crazy men. One dude squatted 1,050 pounds. Another dude attempted 860 pounds on the bench press. Stacy and I curled our little 10-pound dumbbells that morning at 24 Hour Fitness.
8. I haven’t been walking Gus much these past 4 months or so, because he plays tug-of-war with the leash (a hobby he has not taken up with Daddy). For some reason, Gus is listening to me now. He got TWO walks yesterday like a GOOOOOD BOOOOY! Hopefully I didn’t just curse myself with this optimism.
9. I’ve decided that drinking at my house on a school night gives me calorie guilt. That makes me feel like a responsible adult.
10. I’m doing pretty well in the March Madness Bracket. I have Kentucky winning it all, and I have the highest potential score right now. So we’ll see how it all goes down.
11. The stomach pain is much better now that I’m taking medicine each morning. I cancelled my follow-up appointment with the gastroenterologist because I wasn’t too fond of her. After living in Texas since 1999, I finally made an appointment with a general practitioner (which is on Monday). I put on my big girl pants.
12. Gus is on a raw diet now, and he’s eating better than his mom and dad. I bought him three 3-pound bags on venison, and that cost about $51. We were doing half dry food and half raw food until he finished up the dry food. So now he’s 100% raw. Expensive little pooper!
13a. There is a little ambition burning inside of me, and I’m looking at taking the CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) test, but it’s about a $1,000 endeavor. Cliff suggested a (free) leadership program instead.
13b. My new project is to catch up on my photo albums and scrapbooks. I’m working on printing everything, and I bought some more materials at Hobby Lobby. I’m really behind (July 2008). It’s a bit overwhelming.
2. A little (crazy) part of me wants to do the full marathon since I wasn’t able to do the Cowtown Ultra, but the smart part of me knows that I haven’t trained enough these past two months and I’d be asking for an injury.
3. Cliff and his family are camping on Friday night and Saturday. I plan on joining them on Saturday, which might make for an interesting half marathon on Sunday.
4. I started yoga again on Monday and bought the 10-day pass. How’s that for commitment? It’s an expensive hobby, but my back thanks me. If only I had the discipline to stretch on my own for free.
5. I swam twice on my own last week and had two great 3,500-yard practices. It’s fun to have a buddy, but I love the flexibility of going to the pool when I want and choosing the sets that I want. I don’t write a workout… I just make stuff up as I go. I mixed in some kicking, breath control, IM work, pulling, etc.
6. I went to my friend Melissa’s powerlifting competition in Plano on Saturday morning. She’s a hoss and she bench pressed 195 pounds. Remind me not to make her mad.
7. The Jersey Shore “juicehead” term ran through my head repeatedly on Saturday morning when I was staring at some of those crazy men. One dude squatted 1,050 pounds. Another dude attempted 860 pounds on the bench press. Stacy and I curled our little 10-pound dumbbells that morning at 24 Hour Fitness.
8. I haven’t been walking Gus much these past 4 months or so, because he plays tug-of-war with the leash (a hobby he has not taken up with Daddy). For some reason, Gus is listening to me now. He got TWO walks yesterday like a GOOOOOD BOOOOY! Hopefully I didn’t just curse myself with this optimism.
9. I’ve decided that drinking at my house on a school night gives me calorie guilt. That makes me feel like a responsible adult.
10. I’m doing pretty well in the March Madness Bracket. I have Kentucky winning it all, and I have the highest potential score right now. So we’ll see how it all goes down.
11. The stomach pain is much better now that I’m taking medicine each morning. I cancelled my follow-up appointment with the gastroenterologist because I wasn’t too fond of her. After living in Texas since 1999, I finally made an appointment with a general practitioner (which is on Monday). I put on my big girl pants.
12. Gus is on a raw diet now, and he’s eating better than his mom and dad. I bought him three 3-pound bags on venison, and that cost about $51. We were doing half dry food and half raw food until he finished up the dry food. So now he’s 100% raw. Expensive little pooper!
13a. There is a little ambition burning inside of me, and I’m looking at taking the CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) test, but it’s about a $1,000 endeavor. Cliff suggested a (free) leadership program instead.
13b. My new project is to catch up on my photo albums and scrapbooks. I’m working on printing everything, and I bought some more materials at Hobby Lobby. I’m really behind (July 2008). It’s a bit overwhelming.
Monday, March 1, 2010
*Insert Race Report Here*
I feel like such a flake for not running the Cowtown 50K after I paid $100 (and, more importantly, committed!). But I knew I had to be smart and figure out the health issues. I have a follow-up appointment with the gastroenterologist next week, but it does appear that this abdominal pain is a GI issue. The Nexium (little purple pill) seems to be helping.
I finally made it out for a run yesterday after 3.5 weeks off. I ran 4 miles in about a 9:30 pace, and then I did 3 miles this morning in about a 10:00 pace (it was raining pretty hard, so I had to be careful and jump over a bunch of puddles). It is great to be back. Now I have to be careful not to do too much too soon, but I would at least like to do 20 miles this week (and maybe a medium run of 10 or 12 miles on Saturday morning). Hooray!
I've been working on my strength training for the past 10 days after Shawna gave me some suggestions last week. My workouts have been much more intense, and now I'm all up on that Bosu Ball!
Cliff's birthday weekend was a success. I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen (I made a pasta casserole and M&M cookies on Friday night and I also whipped up a big brunch on Sunday morning) and we had a fantastic dinner at Lambert's on Saturday night.
I finally made it out for a run yesterday after 3.5 weeks off. I ran 4 miles in about a 9:30 pace, and then I did 3 miles this morning in about a 10:00 pace (it was raining pretty hard, so I had to be careful and jump over a bunch of puddles). It is great to be back. Now I have to be careful not to do too much too soon, but I would at least like to do 20 miles this week (and maybe a medium run of 10 or 12 miles on Saturday morning). Hooray!
I've been working on my strength training for the past 10 days after Shawna gave me some suggestions last week. My workouts have been much more intense, and now I'm all up on that Bosu Ball!
Cliff's birthday weekend was a success. I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen (I made a pasta casserole and M&M cookies on Friday night and I also whipped up a big brunch on Sunday morning) and we had a fantastic dinner at Lambert's on Saturday night.
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