In a week and a half I will be...

moving to the midwest!!

This is part of the reason I've been so quiet lately. I've have had my mind stirring with move stuff. We are moving for my husband's job. We are excited because we have a lot of family in the area and it will be fun to have family around for the first time ever! 

I'm excited to explore this new area to meet new friends and find new running and biking trails. I'm sad to leave all my dear friends here in California. I will greatly miss seeing them everyday but know that we will keep in touch. And when winter falls on the midwest I may be booking flights back to sunny SoCal the first time the temperature drops below freezing! 

Huntington Beach Marathon 2012 - Race Recap

I can't believe it's all over. Finished. 

The week leading up to the race was less than ideal. My running buddy Karoline had a house full of sick kids and then towards the end of the week (just days before our race) she got sick too. We spent a lot of the week wondering if she would be well enough to run. We picked up race packets on Saturday morning and as exciting as it was to pick up our Marathon bibs there was still a little bit of frustration and sadness since Karoline was still sick and we were unsure if she would be able to run in the morning. The rest of Saturday was spent resting and relaxing.

Race morning we got in the car and drove over to Huntington Beach. Karoline was feeling a little better and we were going to run the race together as planned. I was worried about her health. I ran my first half marathon with a severe case of bronchitis and I know that it's not a pleasurable experience. But the sad thing is that when you put so much time into training you just don't want to throw in the towel at the very end...you want to finish what you started sick or not. 

As we drove to Huntington Beach we started to get ourselves pumped up. We hit Beach Blvd. and we were stuck in major race day traffic jam. As frustrating as that was we decided to just eat our breakfast in the car while we waited. When we reached the parking lots we spent over 45 minutes trying to find a parking spot. Needless to say we were running out of time very quickly. We finally found a parking spot at 6:20 a.m. the waves started at 6:30 a.m.! We hopped out of the car and started lightly jogging to the start line and then we heard the National Anthem and realized that we were about two miles away from the start line...we started to sprint. We made it to the start line out of breath just as our wave was sent off to start the race. It was a really bad start to the race. We didn't even have time for a pre-race potty break!!

We paced a little slower than our predicted marathon pace but all in all we were feeling pretty good despite the crazy start and Karoline being sick. The first 14 miles went by nice and smooth. 

We practiced taking in nutrition every four miles in the future I would push nutrition every six miles (to break up the race in bigger chunks). The turn around on Pacific Coast Highway was a little tough since we were running straight into the sun I felt like I squinted that whole portion of the race. The turn onto the bike/beach path took forever to get to. We kept thinking we should have hit it but it was almost a mile and half further than we thought it was which just bummed us out. 

When we got on the bike/beach path it was hot. No shade but we were trucking along but then around mile 21 the pace group I had been trying to stay ahead of passed us and I just broke down and started crying. I was so upset. I had to walk to calm down. Karoline was the sweetest friend and knows that I get crazy and make "secret goals" that absolutely crush me if I feel like I'm not going to meet. She talked me off the ledge and reminded me that our goal was not for a specific time it was to FINISH and that was the goal we needed to meet. I was so thankful that she felt well enough to run that day because it would have been hard to pull myself together without her voice of reason. At this point we were completely out of water and decided to walk through all the water stops. 

From mile 21-24.5 (until I could see the 25 mile marker) it took all of me to keep going. That was an ugly, ugly part of the race. But when I could see the 25 mile marker I felt so excited and couldn't believe that it was over! Chin up and get this bad boy done was all I needed to do. 

Right before we turned back on Pacific Coast Highway a guy told us that we were almost there and Karoline almost bit his head off ( so funny!!) . She told him people have been telling us that for miles and he smiled and patted her arm and said "Really I promise it's right around the corner". And he was so right because we turned the corner and there it was. I was in tears I could not believe it was so close and to make things even better my hubby and kiddos were right there cheering us on at the finish.

We finished our first marathon with an official time of 4:58.

I am so extremely proud of both of us for pushing through and finishing this marathon especially with the insane start we had. In my mind I will always consider my first marathon mileage to be more along the lines of a 28.2 race since we tacked on the 2 mile sprint at the start. 

Oh man the walk back to the car was KILLER. Two miles seemed more like six. 

I've spent most of the week decompressing over the race. I have celebrated and I have cried. I have been nursing my muscles and race wounds (blisters, chaffing, etc) back to good health. The first couple days of soreness were intense sorta like I got hit by a truck. By Wednesday I felt a million times better and the soreness has virtually gone away.

I thought this little saying was super funny before the marathon but now I feel it's so true.

2 Week Countdown...

To the Super Bowl? ... yes... 

but the Super Bowl is not what I'm counting down to.

I am counting down to February 5th because that is the day that I plan to complete my first Full Marathon!! Yes, that's right I said it...Full Marathon! That is 26.2 miles of pure determination. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would want to or have the fitness base to sign up for one let alone be excited about running in a Marathon.

Run Surf City

I have been training since October. I took a week off after Long Beach half marathon and then began training for this marathon. So far I have completed 14 weeks of training. These last two weeks are taper weeks. Which means my training is reduced to let my legs recover and rest so that they will be fresh for race day. Yippee!

I went back and forth before training started with how I wanted to run this race. I felt there were two ways I could run it: push my pace and finish as fast as I possibly can or not worry that much about pace and just get comfortable with the distance and enjoy the experience. After a lot of thought I decided to not push my pace and just enjoy this distance for my first time running it.
 
I'm running this race with my good friend Karoline and our goal time is somewhere around 4:30. Last weekend we ran the 20 mile run at a 10:29 pace but the training plan predicts our pace to be 10:00 for the race so I'll be interested to see what pace we end up at.

It's funny how scary 26.2 seemed just a few short months ago. I honestly don't feel intimidated by the mileage anymore and really I'm amazed at how strong our bodies are and how much they thrive at being challenged.

So while everyone countdowns to the Super Bowl I will be counting down to my first full marathon in beautiful Huntington Beach!

And just in case you are interested I ran the half marathon at Surf City last year. Here is the recap.

I used a specific training plan which I will share the details later this week. I absolutely loved using this "new to me" method. 

Long Beach Half Marathon 2011 - Race Recap

It's almost been a full week since Long Beach half marathon and I have been meaning to write to tell everyone what a fun race it ended up being!

I admitted earlier that my friend and I did not train like we needed to in order to run a fast race since we had been focused on the triathlon in September. In the future I won't plan races that close together or at the very least have a better plan in place before committing.

We decided to make this race a fun run and partially a training run for our full marathon coming up in February. The moment we made that decision all race jitters and any anxiety about the race went away. The night before the race I slept like a baby and this is not normal for me. The night before a race I usually get very little sleep because I'm really afraid of sleeping in and missing the race. So I usually wake up every hour which is not fun.

Race morning I felt well rested and I walked out my door to find my friend Karoline with two egg and chorizo burritos in her hand. Yummy! It was a real treat. We walked out to the street and the rest of our friends were there to pick us up and then we were off to the race.

We got to the start area in plenty of time to use the potties and get in our wave. Two of our friends went up to the speedy waves and Karoline and I went a couple waves back to where we thought we would pace ourselves. We took a quick picture before the start.


Then it was our turn to start the race. It was hard to keep our pace slower than normal but we knew it was needed to get through the race comfortably. We chose to walk through every water station which was a wonderful change! I usually run through them because I carry my own water and nutrition but occasionally I will grab a cup and try to drink it only to be plagued by a side cramp five seconds later. No side cramps this race. I really don't think we lost any time doing this because we would quickly catch up with the group we were around before the water break.

I really enjoyed all the scenery I totally missed last year. Around mile nine we were both talking about how good we felt mainly due to keeping the pace nice and easy. But around mile eleven I hit a point were I felt I was just done running for the day. Luckily Karoline told me to get my booty in gear and to keep moving and that little boost help me push through my yucky spot. I really wasn't hurting but I think it was more mental.

It was a great race experience this year so I couldn't ask for more than that!

Here are the race stats:

Official Finish time: 2:18:11
Avg. Pace: 10:33
Age group place: 364 out of 1063

Splits from my Garmin:
Mile 1- 10:10
Mile 2- 10:24
Mile 3- 10:05
Mile 4- 9:39
Mile 5- 10:06
Mile 6- 9:55
Mile 7- 9:44
Mile 8- 9:52
Mile 9- 10:14
Mile 10- 10:26
Mile 11- 10:18
Mile 12 -10:27
Mile 13- 9:33

Guest Blogger: Thoughts for Thursday

Guest Blogger:
Brandy STEW , Allergy Mom

The scientific age we live in is annoying, particularly when something magical happens and people reduce it to chance, or say, ‘You are just noticing opportunities that have always been there because of your new interest.’  Truly, I am a fan of science and its many inventions that contribute to my personal happiness: hot showers, apps on the iphone, half-caf soy hazelnut extra-hot lattes and more.  But if you look back in time, the age of science is just a pimple on the huge oily face of human history – we believed in magic a lot longer than science as we know it existed, and perhaps, just perhaps, we have it wrong.

Here is an example of magic from my boring little day.  I’m psyching myself up to lose weight (again) and on the way to work listened to an audiobook about building a training and nutrition plan.  It mentioned having a support team, and one of the things suggested was having a co-worker help pull you from the ledge when you are tempted to eat the world.  I pondered that on and off throughout my workday.  Hours later, completely unsolicited and off topic, a new employee I barely know mentions that he has an eating plan he’s kept to for two years, and if I ever need help dodging the junk food in the kitchen, to give him a call.  I goggled and sputtered at this amazing display of ESP. Then I told him I’d add him to speed dial for the 2pm, 2:40pm, 3:17pm and 4:25pm munchie attacks, and his smile didn’t even falter.  Perhaps he noticed the size of my can and thought to improve the work environment, but I prefer to think his perfectly timed offer was magic.

More examples: I stop nagging my husband about something and he suddenly starts focusing on it – that’s magic.  I threaten to come home with a new car when the air conditioner dies on the sedan and hubby threatens to commit me– not magic.  But when a family member says they can fix it two days later – that’s magic.

Perhaps what I’m learning is that science is about stuff and magic is about people.  We may want to bathe, play and drink science, but people are unmistakably magical.  We create, we connect, and we intuit each other’s needs.  Hopefully we’ll stop using words like ‘coincidence’ and start acknowledging that something bigger is at play here, bigger than luck, or even my can.