So Where Was I?

When I got back from my half marathon, 7 of 9 of my group (including me) were all sick.  We have the same symptoms of runny nose, hacking cough, general malaise and a "just get through the day" attitude.  Our boss is just so proud of our little group...that is, as he calls us on the phone as to not pick up what we all have.

As the week went on, we all got sicker together.  2 people did go to the doctor to find out we all have a cold, so we all are just riding it out on Claritin.  To give you an idea of how bad it is, I missed a Kentucky Derby Party and Cinco de Mayo.  (And thank you, Georgia for no OTB, since for the 3rd time I have picked 1 and 2 in almost 9 years of marriage). 

Somehow this cold makes me feel even better about my half-marathon.  I have accepted my training was not where it should have been.  I also accepted it just wasn't my day.  Shit happens. 

26.2 is back in my thoughts.  Weight loss is in my thoughts (more of it).

My brother lost 65 pounds this year.  He did it through this miracle diet.  You know. The one you don't hear on TV or on the popups on the internet.  He watched his calorie intake, cooked better, and started walking (he is up to 7 miles a day).  He is a big inspiration to me when I feel like I could find an easier way to do everything.  There is no substitute for hard work. 

I need to remember that for training.  That and what Tammy and Delane have told me in the past.  You can fake 13.1 miles. You can't fake 26.2. 

My 3rd Kentucky Derby Half Marathon

So D and I headed up to Louisville, KY on Friday morning.  Unlike past trips, this one was uneventful. The most eventful thing was that women in Smyrna, TN seem to like to show plumber’s crack.  I don’t mean Coin Slot. I mean Credit Card Swipe.  Purposely on the way home, we didn’t stop in Smyrna, TN.

Right when you cross the line from Tennessee into Kentucky, Verizon 3G and 1X service goes away. My friend J got to hear all about First World Problems for 90 miles (texting still worked).  I guess I could have talked to D, but yeah, I didn’t.   We listened to his playlist and looked at a lot of tree covered mountains.  I really am not a nature person.

We finally arrived to Louisville.  We went to the Expo twice.  We got our numbers and got out and then realized we forgot our posters.  We had to re-loop which made me re-look at a T-shirt, so I bought that (just like their evil plan wanted me too).  Then we went down to 4^th Street Live.  We went to Red Star only to find it was now an Italian Restaurant.  So we went to The Pub.  I asked for a Breckenridge Vanilla Porter.  D asked for a Belhaven Scottish Stout. Out of both, on a Friday.  We got Old Reliable… Guinness.

We finished up there and decided since Red Star was closed, tradition had been thwarted and went to a new pizza place.  Bearno’s under the bridge.  More Guinness and Bacon and Sausage Pizza.  I was concerned about the race.  Besides not having run for a week and a half, I had a cold and a sore throat.  D had a cold and a runny nose.  I decided my plan was to try my best and if my time was off, to relax and have fun.  D said that was a good plan.  We got back to the room and went to bed around 9pm.

Guinness at The Pub

Me and D at The Pub

At 11pm I woke up.  My left shoulder hurt.  I thought I was having a heart attack. I wondered if I should put on my heart rate monitor to see what it was reading.  I remembered I had carried in all my bags on that shoulder and that’s why it hurt.  What if it hurt during the race? Maybe I should put on the HRM.  I played on my phone. I went to the bathroom 3 times.  At 1am I finally decided to try sleeping again.  At 2am, I decided I wasn’t sleeping.  I wondered if I didn’t cross the finish line how D would know to go look for me in a hospital. That thought must have relaxed me because it was 615am with the alarm going off.

Having a good hair day pre-race

We got up and had breakfast of Clif Bars and Water (well, I don’t really know what D had, that’s what I had).  At 650 we walked to the race. D wondered if I put his time down wrong because he was in Corral B.  I was in F.  We walked to E and stood (no one was in E).  Then D said he wanted to go.  I looked at the Green Lantern for awhile.  The 13:10 pace group lined up ahead of me.  We listened to the National Anthem and then we stood for awhile. Then we moved and stood, moved and stood, finally moved.  About 20 minutes later we crossed the Start Line. 

Scared shitless like at every race!

I  ran not really thinking about much.  I think the course was slightly different than last year because we seemed to run on Main Street forever.  The 13:10 pace team was going at 12:30 and kept having to walk.  I stayed with them for awhile.  They passed me.  At 1.5 miles I was completely dehydrated.  My head hurt and my lips were stuck. I drank 3 glasses of water at the water stop.  We turned and ran on 18^th (I think) for awhile.  Then onto the road with the McDonald’s.

I had some Powerade and some more water.  I was thinking I was going way too fast.  I was also thinking my nose was running way too much for any good snot rockets. My sleeve was my Kleenex.  It was massively used.

Mile 1: 12:48

Mile 2: 13:07

Mile 3: 12:45

Mile 4:13:06

The 13:10 pacers had long passed me.  I turned and went up towards Mile 5.  Again, I just spaced out.  I got to Mile 6 and found 2 women to pace because I was getting tired.  Somehow I ended up passing them.

Mile 5:13:16

Mile 6: 13:48

10K: 82:03 (PR by 5 seconds)

After I crossed the 10K mat I walked for 2 minutes. I had some oranges and was so happy that I was either running faster so I got food or they supplied more food for the slower people (I think this was the case).  I started running again, but now was insanely tired.  And my 4^th toe on my left foot started hurting.  At Mile 7 I had some almonds that I had in my pants (nuts in my pants…lol).  I decided that wasn’t a good idea so I put them back.  I turned and was running next to Churchill Downs.  I don’t know if it was psychosomatic or what, but my hip started hurting because we had turned off asphalt and turned onto cement (or is it concrete?).  Mile 8 was into Churchill Downs. We ran under the stands and then right as we were about to run under the field, horses came flying over the field. That was an awesome sight.  Then I ran down the hill, and I thought my hip was going to come off.  I decided I would have to walk because the pain was excruciating.  I got to the infield and it was all asphalt.  I decided to run 30 seconds.  I felt fine so I ran the rest of the way through the infield, looking at the horses.  Back to the cement to go under the field and Mother of God!  More walking.  Came out and all concrete (I’ll just use them interchangeably).  I tried to run and my toe and my hip…Again, let’s just walk to the Marathon Split.

Mile 7: 13:44

Mile 8:14:11

Mile 9: 15:23

Ok, I decided I didn’t know what was up so to have fun and look at T-shirts.  The Marathoners rejoined us.  KDF did a good job (to me) this year and had cones up to keep the HM and Full separate.  It looked like they really listened to people and took advice.  I ran next to a pirate for awhile.

This was the Pirate I ran next to. I don't know who the woman is.

My butt/hip felt fine, but my toe was killing with every bend.  Still I tried not to notice it (with ever  flinch of pain).  I came across the College Beer Drinking Team and had some Busch Light with them.  Then I had some Powerade at the table ahead. 

Mile 10: 15:32. 

The idea of having fun left my head.  The thought that I even entertained running 26.2 seemed shattered.  I tried to keep going.  I wanted to cut off my toe.  A song I routinely hear in Mile 11 came on.  I got upset.  I was stupid to keep this up.  I had to switch arm sleeves because the right one was full of snot.  You have less than a 5K. Keep moving.

Mile 11: 16:10

I realized I wasn’t making it under 3 hours. I was a complete and utter failure.  People qualify for Boston in less time than it takes me to run 13.1 miles.  Who runs a mile in 16 minutes?  What is wrong with you?  You suck.  Keep moving.  You get a beer when you are done.  People who suck don’t even run 13.1 miles.  You are doing it with something wrong with your foot.  Keep moving.

Mile 12: 15:15.

I came out from under the tunnel and turned back on Main.  Lots of people. I had realized I had tuned out a lot of people and didn’t know if there was good fan support or not.  So selfish of you not to realize people want to see you succeed.  I was watching a man ahead of me struggle. He had a Christopher Reeves Foundation Shirt on.  He had 2 canes, and he was clearly struggling.  His arms were wavering and his legs were buckling with every step. He was crying.  2 men who had finished and had their medals jumped the race gates and became human crutches.  I was still behind him, and it was powerful to watch.  Just then the Green Lantern passed me.  I decided I couldn’t let him beat me (the Green Lantern).  I actually don’t know if I caught up to him, but I got to the final turn without it being Mile 13.

Mile 13: 15:22

I ran down the last part of the race. This man is running next to me with a video camera in my face. I was so confused. Then I realized he is taping his wife on the other side of me.  I decided to run as hard as I could and if I puked oh well.  They called my name as I was finishing.  I crossed the line.

Mile .18: 1:58

Total: 3:06:20

I got across and they gave me a foil blanket.  And then I got a medal.  Then I heard my name and saw D.  He had Powerade for me.   

Flying!

I wanted to kill my feet.  I was so mad about my time.  I asked him how his time was.  He had PR’d one minute faster than his last one.  It sounds wrong and weird. This made me happy.  He had been training so much faster.  I knew he has been sick too. So I could blame being sick. (I know the complete lack of training probably had something to do with it as well).  We got our pics taken.  We went and got a free beer and sat for awhile so I could relax my foot.  The people by us were nice.  I think the guy was ill, as he left the table looking quite pale and came back even paler.

I drank about half

My Medal

The Sheer Look of Disappointment

Back to the room for a nap.  Then we went drinking and watched Hockey.  

The Maturity of Us and the Future of Education

Dark Star Porter at BBC

I was making fun of people who pose like this, because I hate this pose. But Damn! Look at that calf muscle!

D and the Colonel

Love this place

Blink and you might miss it! Another fun place

The No Thought 12 Miler

So once again, D and I had our 12 miler on tap.  Back to Silver Comet Trail for 12 mile run. This is the only place we have ever run the 12 miler, so why change up?

We started off at 845.  I felt a little off and I couldn't find my rhythm the first mile.  I finally settled in at Mile 2 and felt more comfortable.  I felt I was going faster by the time I got to Mile 3. I couldn't tell, really but I felt strong still.    At Mile 4.7 I saw D.  I realized I had not thought about anything for quite some time.  I also wondered if he rode in the car in a blue shirt. I was convinced he had on a red shirt.  I know he said it wasn't comfortable, but I really didn't recall him changing.  Call me Perceptive!

With that, I concluded Mile 5 is downhill.  Which if you look at my below times, you would agree too.  Still I never passed this dreaded section between Mile 5 and 6.  Or did I?  I don't know.  I was looking down a lot and I never saw the big V's in the road that I normally see.  So finally I hit Mile 6 and turned back around.

Again Perceptive.  The V's were right there (they are notches in the path I guess to slow down bikers.  I'm not really sure why they are there).  I still looked down because I know this section is an incline and a curve, and it can be discouraging. It isn't anything massive, but it is just discouraging at that juncture of the race.

During Mile 8 I started having trouble. I wanted to stop.  I really dug deep to keep going.  At Mile 9, I wondered what the hell that was about.  I realized I had less than a 5K and to keep going.  This is where the wheels fell off.  I was running fine, and all of the sudden I had a massive itch in my calf. Not a cramp but an itch.  It itched so badly, I had to stop and scratch it.  I mean nails in skin scratch.  I finally got it to be a nag, so I started again.  By then, I lost my rhythm.  I was paying to much attention to the time, so I told myself to run 2 songs and then I could look/walk a minute.  This seemed to work, except now I just focuses on how sore my butt was.  I kept going despite how slowly it was.  Mile 11 ticked by.  Mile 12, my butt was screaming.  Not a bad pain. Just a "What the Hell are you doing to me?" pain.  I walked 3 minutes and then decided to finish it up.  It wasn't pretty.  It wasn't great. But it was done.

D met me at Mile Marker 0 with Gatorade.  It was glorious.  We walked back to the car, ran some errands and then came home. I took a 3 hour nap and sat on the sofa the rest of the day.

12 Mile Comparison: 2010, 2011, and 2012
                April2010                  April2011                    September2011            April 2012
Mile 1:    13:48                           14:14                           15:00                           13:54
Mile 2:    14:19                           14:19                           14:32                           13:40
Mile 3:    14:31                           14:02                           14:08                           14:12
Mile 4:    14:36                           13:35                           14:07                           14:07
Mile 5:    14:21                           12:54                           13:44                           12:39
Mile 6:    15:28                           14:22                           14:02                           13:43
Mile 7:    16:05                           13:52                           15:07                           13:42
Mile 8:    15:17                           13:59                           14:15                           13:36
Mile 9:    16:09                           13:37                           14:16                           13:32
Mile 10:  16:17                           13:20                           14:02                           14:42
Mile 11:  18:04                           13:52                           13:39                           15:15
Mile 12:  18:03                           14:05                           13:55                           16:07
Total:      3:07:03 (15:35/mi)    2:46:14 (13:51/mi)      2:50:55(14:14/mi)            2:49:10 (14:06/mi)

And I Saw This!

So I got this badge on Foursquare this morning.

The School Night Badge

Your congrats for the badge is, "Checking-in after 3am on a school night? Well done!" Well, it would be cool, except do you know where I was?  At the gym, at 459 AM!!!!

Something is really wrong is really wrong with me that I would go there so early!  So D and I decided to run.
We both decided to run 3 miles so we were in the same room.

Nothing was really exciting about the run.  About a mile in, I decided to run 5 miles.  I am a frequent checker of all things around me, so I was looking all around at my towel, my water bottle, my Gatorade bottle, and my HRM Watch.  At 20 minutes I checked the HRM, and it was 160ish.  Around 25 minutes, more people had arrived and D was done.  I waved bye to him and looked around at the people and my feet.  I watched some Psych.  You know, occupied some space.  At 34 minutes I looked at my watch.  I saw this.

Ugh. Then it became a whole thing.  I hit all the buttons, and nothing happened.  This has happened once before and I knew I had to take the back of the watch off, but I certainly couldn't do it here.  And I was doing 5 miles on the treadmill that I have to restart at 60 minutes.  I have no pen. I have no phone (in the car).  How am I going to remember all these numbers?  That took me to 39 minutes.  I checked the watch again.  Still...

What to do.  OK.  Run for 10 more minutes and then think of a plan.  So I did. It involved a lot of looking at this.

Can you believe it never changed?  So I got up to 49 minutes and realized on was on pace to get a fast-for-me 5 miler.  Of all the days!!!!  So I decided I would watch the clock and the mileage and the calories on the tread mill.  I hit stop at 53:00, 4.19 miles and 603 calories.  I then restarted the treadmill.
I quickly calculated I had to run .81 miles (this actually took me .1 mile to figure out because I was trying to remember 603 and was confusing myself).  Once I got that, I kept looking at the calories.  Damn 22:38/165!!!!!  The minutes ticked away and I finally reached .81 miles and I hit stop on the treadmill.
I ran 5 miles in 63:40, and 738 calories.  I started my .5 miles walk at 3 mph (so I knew it would take 10 minutes) and kept repeating 63:40 738.  I watched more Psych.  When I was done, I left and texted D 5/6340/738 so I could remember.  I know he just chalked it up to his nutso wife.

I sat in a meeting at work and looked at my watch.  I saw

Gah! Luckily I found mini-screw drivers and took the battery out and back in.

All is well in the world!

The Mixed-Up Kid

I can't believe it is 3 weeks until the half.  I still don't know if I'm trained enough for it.

I was telling D about my attitude about the whole thing.  Since I already got below 3 hours, I really don't care about getting faster.  I'm just about enjoying myself.  Except I do care when I'm on the treadmill (when I make it to the gym) or out for a long run.  And my long runs are on roads I would have never dreamed of running prior to this training.  They are hills. They roll. They incline slowly.  They pitch straight up.  I know they are there, and I choose to go up them.  Down...I tend to walk.  I have no clue what is going on in my head or my training.

My 9 and 10 mile run paces were all over the place from the moment, "Go!"  My 7 mile was quite steady.

So I haven't been blogging because I don't know what to say.  I'm slacking on my running except when I do it?  I'm having a lot of fun looking around?  When I'm out running, I'm looking around at neighborhoods, seeing people and places for the first time (despite driving past them every day). When I get back, I look at the times and go, "I guess I should have run faster."  Who knows?  The weather is gorgeous except for the pollen, so I'm going to continue to have fun and feel guilty all at the same time.

:P

Unrelated to Running

Of course, we all have seen this on Designing Women, or your dad tells this ditty repeatedly.  I was reminded of it this morning, while in a meeting. It still makes me laugh.

Two ladies, a Yankee and a Southern Belle, are sitting next to each other on a plane. The Southern Belle turns to the Yankee and asks, "So, where y'all from?"

The Yankee replies, "I am from a place where we do not end our sentences with a preposition."

Without missing a beat, the Southern Belle bats her lashes and asks, "So, where y'all from, bitch?"

No Statistics March

They are so out of whack, I'm not even going to bother.
Don't eat Chinese Food the day before a weigh-in, or you can gain 10 pounds overnight and seriously depress yourself.
Don't get sinus infection that falls into your chest and then go see the only doctor under the age of 50 in the free world who still gives out Amoxicillan instead of a Z-pack, thus delaying your running for a long time.
Don't think you can run 6 miles the day you're hosting a party.

Do focus on the fact you made your 8, 9 and 10 milers.
Do focus on the fact that you ran up a hill every time you've gone out for a run that made your car have trouble finding gears (automatic transmission) as you went up it.
Do focus on the fact that your new routes had your husband scratching his head of why you would run there (and not just for safety reasons).  HILLS!!!
Do continue to find new recipes even if one of them is Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Cake.
Do focus on the fact that you are contemplating running 26.2 miles in the year 2013 to push yourself more than you ever thought you could.