Race Recap: Towpath Half Marathon

People! Kali's out of town because she ran the Chicago Marathon on Sunday...so, go check out my guest post today over at Finishing Firsts about yin yoga for runners! 

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If the Cleveland Marathon was a 10 on the pre-race anxiety scale, this race was a 1.

And I like 1's a lot better!

Not gonna lie, I left work on Friday feeling like, I should be more nervous or more prepared for this race...but oh well! (Or "swaha" as my yoga teacher would say)

You know what? We did A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

I ended up running my second fasted half ever, and Brandon PRed! 

2:04:40

(for those of you with bad eye-sight, like me)

Seriously, people, it was birthday weekend. I gorged on sugary sweets and one too many glasses of red wine on Friday night. I guess that's how I should do it every time. 

Actually, I'm the most happy with how the race went because I didn't commit to a training schedule. I ran a couple times a week and a few races and probably one or two long runs. Ha! Running was almost an afterthought actually.

What I did do was a lot of cross training: 

Yoga (loads of it)

Body-weight circuits

Walking the pups (probably should have happened more often)

I honestly felt good the whole time. A little fatigued at the end, but it felt like we were cruising for the first 7 miles or so. We stopped for a few walk breaks to drink water, but overall had a really solid race.

This is a race that I would totally consider coming back to do the marathon next year (er...maybe in a few years). It's an awesomely flat course and it's beautiful! The towpath in the fall is probably my favorite time to run it.

Sunday's race also sealed the deal on half marathons for me - the half is far and away my favorite distance! My reasoning?

• Training for a half doesn't take up your entire life like a full does (and in this particular case, it hardly took up any of my life, although I would have liked to get in a few more longer runs)
• I feel much better running a half than a full. For some reason I ALWAYS die in the second half of a marathon. Maybe it's my training, or lack thereof, but I love being done after 13 miles. 
• After I finish a half, I'm not burnt out from running. Usually I need a good solid break from running after a full marathon. Not so much with a half.
• I honestly think I can PR a half. I'm not so confident in my ability to PR a marathon at this point.

That's not to say I'm not going to run full marathons. When the time comes and I'm ready again, I totally will. In the meantime, I'm going to keep on running and loving my half marathons. I know that I can keep up my half marathon endurance if I just keep on doing what I've been doing, and I absolutely love that.

What a great birthday weekend! Smiles all around!!

Race Recap: Akron Marathon Relay

I'm gonna just say it. I suck at taking pictures. This post should have way more pictures than it does, considering I ran one of the shortest relay legs.

Oh well, I began the weekend severely unprepared anyway.

Let's begin at Friday. I spent the evening in Akron at Emily's (my old roomie) place. When I got to work on Friday morning - mind you, it's a 50 minute drive - I realized I forgot to bring my watch, my socks and my running shoes. Whoops.

Thank goodness my Vibrams were in my car.

I had a master plan for the morning: drive downtown to meet my team for the start, drive back to Emily's  and run the 1 mile from her apartment to my relay exchange point, run my leg of the relay, run the trail along Sand Run Parkway back to her apartment. Total mileage: about 7.5 miles.

Way more than I've ever done in my Vibrams.

I couldn't sleep at all on Friday night. I don't know why. I wasn't really nervous, I wasn't going to run too far, I'd started and finished this race before. But I was up every hour. On the hour. (Just like the news!) I finally got up around 5:20 - ten whole minutes before my alarm went off and began my morning rituals.

I managed to make it to the start without too much difficulty, considering the road closures, and met Kali, Ann (our official coach/cheerleader/relay organizer), Paul, Ryan and Julie to gather our race bibs. Julie #2 was also there to hang out with us at the start! She decided to run the last leg of the relay for her team 11 hours prior to the race, and I have to hand it to her because running 8 miles at the drop of a hat is nothing to sneeze at.

{photocred: miss julie}

I also got to catch up with a good friend of mine who moved to Milwaukee a few years ago but always comes back to work the marathon with his family. It was so awesome to see him for a happy, albeit brief, reunion.

I drove back to Emily's, watched a recorded episode of Community, then put my shoes on and ran up to my exchange point. I got there before it got super busy, but I started getting worried when they began announcing numbers, one after the other, as fast as they could. What if I missed them calling our number? Seriously, it was like"

"7645......8001.....7556....8012...8075..7915.8145 8556 8475 8225 8222 7895 8129 6954 8035 8054"

Ahh! That's my number, time to go!!

Julie was right before me and looking pretty strong after the hill she just had to run, I gave her a "you go girl!" and headed down Sand Run Parkway. I know the road pretty well because I used to live a mile away and traversed it a lot when I was training for Akron in 2009. I have a love/hate relationship with Sand Run Parkway. I'll tell ya what though, it's much nicer tackling those hills on fresh legs than it is after having already run 15.5 miles! Just sayin'.

All I know is that I was feeling pretty good and before you knew it, I was looking for Kali at the next exchange point. I didn't have a watch on so I couldn't even tell you how fast (or slow - it's all relative) I was going.

Unfortunately I didn't make it back to the finish because after running back to Emily's there was no way for me to get there in time to see Kali finish...the road closures make things a bit sloppy. I didn't miss all the tweets though:

3:58!!!! That's really exciting to someone who has never run a sub-4:30 marathon. The official time:

So it looks like I was running about a 9:18/mile. I was feeling awesome the whole time and I managed to get in almost 8 miles in my Vibrams! I'll take that.

And I'll take pancakes at Fisher's and a two and a half hour nap before the tribe game. 

It was a good day :)

Race Recap: University Heights Memorial Day Run

Happy Monday my lovelies! Thank you for understand I am back in action here and ready with a whole bunch of good posts planned and some very exciting news...

I got a new baby!!

Not gonna lie, this camera is the coolest thing since sliced bread. I've had a few photo shoots with my dogs, my veggies, my meals and a tiny bit of Fireside. So you can look forward to much better quality pics on PL&B from now on...startinggggg now:

Brandon was my official race photographer last Monday since he couldn't run with me {insert life-sized sad face here} You know what that meant? More great racing photos! 

I think I found out on Thursday that there was a Memorial Day 4-miler in University Heights, starting and ending at JCU  (aka 3 minutes from my house). I signed Brandon and I up. Friday we went on a run in the morning and something in Brandon's foot popped right at the end of the run. We walked 3 more blocks home and Brandon was out of the race that Monday. Bummer.

{Just to quickly follow up on that, he's okay. No fracture...I'm almost positive a tendon just popped out of place and needed to pop back into place, which it did. We're getting back to running together tomorrow!}

On race day, it was about 90 degrees! I totally wasn't ready for that one. Regardless, Brandon and I walked with the pups (and my new camera) up to JCU so they could cheer me on at the finish. 

I started the race waaay too fast, because I figured four miles should just be no problem right? I could run it quickly and easily. Hmm. Yeah, about that...

Actually the beginning of the race was mostly downhill, so that helped me start really fast. BUT I got very hot very quickly and, as it is with hills, what goes down must come up. Plus, this was my first race without Brandon in a long time, so I was really missing him since I didn't have anyone to talk to. Plus, it was the first time I had run with my iPod in about a year...and it desperately needed a musical update! 

Needless to say, each consecutive mile was slower and slower. That's okay though, I finished averaging a 9 minute mile...so that is still wonderful for me.

Those are my splits. Haha, I definitely died. In my defense, there was a big hill at the end. 

And it was hot. 

The next two pictures look strikingly similar. We are definitely sisters!

I was so happy at the end of the race to see Brandon, Buck and Pele'! All my boys there to see me at the finish. I was happy with my time. I was hot, hot, hot! Aaaand it was a day off work! I couldn't have asked for a better Memorial Day. 

I know I'm a bit late to the game, but what did you do for MDW?

Happy Monday,

Race Recap: Cleveland Marathon 2011

(photo credit: mojamala2)

That's a picture of the Cleveland Marathon race shirt this year (courtesy of Jess, I neglected to take a picture of my own shirt!)

Oh what a Cleveland Experience it was!!

Let's just start from the very beginning here...Alicia hosted an OBA pre-race carb fest for anyone who was running and any other bloggers/significant others who wanted to be there! It was awesome to meet so many other bloggers from the area who I regularly stalk via their blogs :) Plus it was an awesome meal before a big race!

Race morning, Brandon and I woke up at 5 a.m. after we both had nightmares about various aspects of the race. We had every thing ready for the morning and only had to get up, let the pups out and get out the door. The plan was to take the 5:40 rapid into Tower City and use the walk over to Browns Stadium as a warm-up lap before the race.

That was the plan.

We waited for the Green Line at Shaker and Green, where there were about 10 other runners/spectators there waiting for the train to get them downtown by 6:03. 5:40 rolls around...no train. 5:53...no train. 'Um...okay...should we just drive? It's going to be a mess if we do.' A minute or so later, we see a bus labeled "Green Line" drive into the parking lot and beckon us over. 

The bus driver goes, "there's a car across the tracks and the train can't get down here, I'm going to take you to the Shaker Square stop"

Brandon asks "But if the train can't turn around at Green, are there any trains going west into downtown?"

Bus Driver "I'm not sure"

Holy crap! I am in panic mode at this point, 'what if we don't make it in time? How on earth are we going to get downtown?! All the roads are closed!!'

The bus takes us down to the Shaker Square stop, and on the way we see a car flipped over on the train tracks. As we are driving up we see a train (that is headed west!) pulling up into the station. So everyone jumps out of the bus and sprints to the train. It gets us to Tower City at 6:30. So, Brandon and I jog down to the stadium and get there by 6:40 (give or take a minute). We both need to poop. We need to check our gear at the bag check. I manage to find a bathroom with no lines and run in while Brandon waits outside for me. No such luck with the Men's bathrooms...they all have lines out the door. Oh, and where in god's name is the bag check???? 

Finally, I see signs for the bag check so Brandon decides to wait in line for the bathroom while I got check our stuff. We agree to meet right outside the bathroom he's going into. I go check our bag, by this time it's 6:53, and I run back to the bathroom to wait for Brandon. 

6:54

6:55

6:56

I start panicking (again) because I am seeing people filter all the way through the line and out of the other door while I was waiting there...but no Brandon. 'Maybe he tried to find me at the bag check?' I start hearing announcements outside and I am no longer seeing people with marathon-colored bibs anywhere in the stadium. I called him, thankfully we both had our phones on us in our trusty Camelbaks...but he didn't answer. I run back towards bag check...nothing. I head outside towards the start...nothing. At 6:59, I call again and he answers. He was waiting for me by the bathroom, where we agreed to meet. Dummy...why did I even leave? Apparently there were like 30 urinals in that bathroom and 4 stalls.

Honestly? Every runner there is going to want to poop. Not pee. Get real Browns Stadium.

Thankfully, either my watch was fast or the race didn't start quite on time. We got down to the starting area (for lack of a better word for the cluster that was the start of the race) and had a minute or two to calm down (well, I had a minute or two to calm down). Deirdre, my favorite yoga teacher ever, who was also running the race with her boyfriend, managed to find us right before we started to say hi. Then we were off.

I have never experienced so much anxiety before a race like I did that morning.

Seriously, my heart rate was probably higher at the start than it would be for the entire rest of the race.

Our plan was to get a couple of solid miles in before we started our 4 minutes running, 1 minute walking. Well, we ended up running the majority of the first 13 miles...and killing it! If we had kept up that pace for the whole race, we would have easily beat my PR. 

There was a problem with that. I hit a wall early. As soon as the half marathoners split off and we began to heat east, the field in our immediate vicinity suddenly went from about 50 people to about 12. The wind started blowing. It got cold. The 60 degrees and misty of the beginning of the race quickly turned into 50 degrees and rainy. My hands turned into two ice cubes. I seriously underestimated how cold it was going to get. My shorts and t-shirt were not keeping me warm anymore.

By mile 14, I had to start run/walking. I was getting tired, cold and the worst part was, my shoulders were tightening up on me. It started feeling more and more like there was a gorilla sitting on my shoulders and I couldn't shake the feeling. Thank goodness that Brandon was able to stay positive through all of those miles that I couldn't. Mentally, that second half of the race got the better of me.

At some point, the 4:45 pace group passed us, and I couldn't find the heart to catch up. I apologized to Brandon a few times for slowing down so much, but he kept reminding me "We trained together, we started together and we're going to finish together. That's all there is to it."

Love him.

At mile 20, I got a good jolt. Liz, a good friend of my from college, rode her bike down with her husband to see us. In the crappy weather, they came to cheer us on! That meant so much to me. I can't even put it into words. She asked how I was doing and I said "dude, I'm struggling". She reminded me that I only had 6.2 more miles. I could do this

Liz posted this picture on facebook after the race. Our mile 20 smiles:

We continued to run/walk all the way to the finish. I just had to digest it in 4 minute bite sized pieces or it was going to get the best of me. My shoulders were tight, I was soaked, my hands were icicles (isn't it freaking May?!?!) but I had Brandon next to me the entire time. Smiling and keeping me positive. I am so lucky for that. The clock time at the finish was 5:06 and we crossed the finish line holding hands. I swear I almost cried, until I heard them announce our names and then everything just dissolved. I made it...in once piece...so did Brandon...phew!

All I could think of was chocolate milk. Thank goodness they had some for us at the end.

Even though we wanted to beat my PR, I think the bigger accomplishment was working through four months of training and running that entire race right next to each other. We finished. Together. That 26.2 mile journey  with Brandon by my side meant more to me than I could ever put into words. Pretty sure we can conquer just about anything now.

Now, I think that deserved a day off work yesterday, don't you??