It's over! This year I can honestly say I'm so glad it's over. My stupid, "I really really in my heart of hearts think I'll one day compete in an Ironman" line from a few weeks ago is such crap. I hurt so bad I think that swimming and running on top of a marathon is just a stupid idea. :)
Finding the time to train was a lot harder this year. I'm not sure why. Life just seems busier. Aside from having a hard time logging the necessary miles each week, I really missed being able to ride my bike or hit my legs hard at the gym for fear of being too sore to run. I'm happy to be going back to hard strength workouts and normal length runs! So the week prior to race day, my exercise schedule was supposed to look something like this:
Monday: light legs and cardio
Tuesday: heavy upper body
Wednesday: 3 mile run
Thursday-Saturday: REST
Sunday: RACE DAY
Instead, it went something like this:
Monday: sick at home
Tuesday: sick at home
Wednesday: jury duty ALL day
Thursday: light cardio
Friday: migraine and vomiting ALL day
Saturday: REST
Sunday: RACE DAY
So, not the best week leading up to my run. I had plans to go to the Expo in Phoenix to pick up my racing chip on Friday, but I was perched over a toiled barfing all day so that didn't happen. Saturday morning came and Clint went into work since he had spent part of Friday helping me hold my hair back. I didn't want to take the girls into downtown Phoenix by myself, so I waited for him to get home. By the time he got home the girls were napping so we waited till they woke up, which wasn't till around 5. (late, I know.) So we load up and head out. I pull out my paperwork and realize the expo closes at SIX. We were 45+ minutes away and it was already 5:30 at this point, so I was STRESSING. There was no packet pick up on race day, so if I couldn't get my chip, that was that. No race for me. I was panicking and picturing myself running 26.2 miles around my neighborhood by myself the next day--because that is exactly what I would have done. Didn't sound fun. Clint pulled through though and sped like a mad man-dropped me off at the Phoenix Convention Center and I hauled ass (pardon my language, but I really did.) up three stories to the expo. Everything was shut down and I had to beg someone from the race crew to dig my number and chip out of a box. When I got my hands on this beauty, I was ecstatic.
So, no pictures of me posing at the expo this year. :) We met Clint's folks for dinner after the expo and they took the girls home with them for the night. Thank you Shari!!! Sunday morning Clint and I headed over to Nick's house and picked him up. I suckered him into running with me. He didn't train, he played in soccer games Friday night, he went snowboarding all day Saturday, and ran Sunday. And still beat me. PUNK. I was so glad he was there with me though. It's always more fun to have someone at the starting line with you. Here we are in the wee hours of the morning heading to corral SIX.
As always in a race, the first few miles were the best. I was happy and feeling quick and full of energy. Usually on race day, that euphoric feeling lasts for the first 13 miles or so. Not this time. This was a horrible run for me. At mile three, I was STARVING. Literally so hungry and I wanted to stop for food so bad. I'm not sure why, either, because I ate plenty and never get hungry on my runs. So that stank. Then my ipod quit on me. Yep. It was awful. I had no tunes and my thoughts were not pretty. I couldn't find my groove and just wasn't having a great run day. Thankfully, my ipod kicked back in. My nike chip wasn't working anymore though so I didn't know my pace or anything, which annoyed me. But, I had music. Life was good again. Clint found me at mile 20, which was great timing, because I was done. My joints were fine, which was surprising because they are usually sore after 15 miles. My muscles, however, were shot. They felt like jelly and just weren't holding me up well. He gave me a pep talk and ran with me for a half mile or so. He kept telling me that Nick was only a few minutes in front of me and that he was dragging so I had to catch up. I laughed at him and told him it wasn't going to happen, but lucky for me, I caught up to him. He was beat up and ready to be done, just like me. We made a deal that we would walk 100 yards and then run the rest of the way. So we did. We stayed together from mile 23 till the end. That is until he sprinted away from me at the last second. The nerve. Overall, my time was 4:07:43 and his was 4:07:37. I'm super happy with my time this year. I didn't have a specific time I wanted to get, so long as it was faster than last year. Last year I came in right around 4:15, so my goal was anything under that. I ran quicker the first 15 miles than the last 11, but my average pace was 9:27. Nothing spectacular, but I'm ok with it. There were 5,062 marathoners and 19,298 half marathoners this year. Made me feel like such a teeny fish in a big pond. Here's Nick when Clint found him. I'm not putting my mile 20 pic up here because it is hideous.
Here we are just after crossing the finish line.
I'm so glad Clint and BJ came out to cheer us on. Having people who love you there makes literally all the difference in the world. For my next one, I'm going to find a way to get my girls there at the finish line. More motivation to finish fast. Speaking of my next one, it won't be for a while. I'm sure I'll have another kid by then and I think I'll wait til Sage is in school before I try to push a triple jogger around town. Anyways, glad the stress of training is over and happy to be going back to fun, just-for-the-heck-of-it runs.
Finding the time to train was a lot harder this year. I'm not sure why. Life just seems busier. Aside from having a hard time logging the necessary miles each week, I really missed being able to ride my bike or hit my legs hard at the gym for fear of being too sore to run. I'm happy to be going back to hard strength workouts and normal length runs! So the week prior to race day, my exercise schedule was supposed to look something like this:
Monday: light legs and cardio
Tuesday: heavy upper body
Wednesday: 3 mile run
Thursday-Saturday: REST
Sunday: RACE DAY
Instead, it went something like this:
Monday: sick at home
Tuesday: sick at home
Wednesday: jury duty ALL day
Thursday: light cardio
Friday: migraine and vomiting ALL day
Saturday: REST
Sunday: RACE DAY
So, not the best week leading up to my run. I had plans to go to the Expo in Phoenix to pick up my racing chip on Friday, but I was perched over a toiled barfing all day so that didn't happen. Saturday morning came and Clint went into work since he had spent part of Friday helping me hold my hair back. I didn't want to take the girls into downtown Phoenix by myself, so I waited for him to get home. By the time he got home the girls were napping so we waited till they woke up, which wasn't till around 5. (late, I know.) So we load up and head out. I pull out my paperwork and realize the expo closes at SIX. We were 45+ minutes away and it was already 5:30 at this point, so I was STRESSING. There was no packet pick up on race day, so if I couldn't get my chip, that was that. No race for me. I was panicking and picturing myself running 26.2 miles around my neighborhood by myself the next day--because that is exactly what I would have done. Didn't sound fun. Clint pulled through though and sped like a mad man-dropped me off at the Phoenix Convention Center and I hauled ass (pardon my language, but I really did.) up three stories to the expo. Everything was shut down and I had to beg someone from the race crew to dig my number and chip out of a box. When I got my hands on this beauty, I was ecstatic.
So, no pictures of me posing at the expo this year. :) We met Clint's folks for dinner after the expo and they took the girls home with them for the night. Thank you Shari!!! Sunday morning Clint and I headed over to Nick's house and picked him up. I suckered him into running with me. He didn't train, he played in soccer games Friday night, he went snowboarding all day Saturday, and ran Sunday. And still beat me. PUNK. I was so glad he was there with me though. It's always more fun to have someone at the starting line with you. Here we are in the wee hours of the morning heading to corral SIX.
As always in a race, the first few miles were the best. I was happy and feeling quick and full of energy. Usually on race day, that euphoric feeling lasts for the first 13 miles or so. Not this time. This was a horrible run for me. At mile three, I was STARVING. Literally so hungry and I wanted to stop for food so bad. I'm not sure why, either, because I ate plenty and never get hungry on my runs. So that stank. Then my ipod quit on me. Yep. It was awful. I had no tunes and my thoughts were not pretty. I couldn't find my groove and just wasn't having a great run day. Thankfully, my ipod kicked back in. My nike chip wasn't working anymore though so I didn't know my pace or anything, which annoyed me. But, I had music. Life was good again. Clint found me at mile 20, which was great timing, because I was done. My joints were fine, which was surprising because they are usually sore after 15 miles. My muscles, however, were shot. They felt like jelly and just weren't holding me up well. He gave me a pep talk and ran with me for a half mile or so. He kept telling me that Nick was only a few minutes in front of me and that he was dragging so I had to catch up. I laughed at him and told him it wasn't going to happen, but lucky for me, I caught up to him. He was beat up and ready to be done, just like me. We made a deal that we would walk 100 yards and then run the rest of the way. So we did. We stayed together from mile 23 till the end. That is until he sprinted away from me at the last second. The nerve. Overall, my time was 4:07:43 and his was 4:07:37. I'm super happy with my time this year. I didn't have a specific time I wanted to get, so long as it was faster than last year. Last year I came in right around 4:15, so my goal was anything under that. I ran quicker the first 15 miles than the last 11, but my average pace was 9:27. Nothing spectacular, but I'm ok with it. There were 5,062 marathoners and 19,298 half marathoners this year. Made me feel like such a teeny fish in a big pond. Here's Nick when Clint found him. I'm not putting my mile 20 pic up here because it is hideous.
Here we are just after crossing the finish line.
I'm so glad Clint and BJ came out to cheer us on. Having people who love you there makes literally all the difference in the world. For my next one, I'm going to find a way to get my girls there at the finish line. More motivation to finish fast. Speaking of my next one, it won't be for a while. I'm sure I'll have another kid by then and I think I'll wait til Sage is in school before I try to push a triple jogger around town. Anyways, glad the stress of training is over and happy to be going back to fun, just-for-the-heck-of-it runs.
7 comments:
You are still so much better than I would ever be. I'm happy with a 12 min. mile. It's nice you had someone to do it with.
AHHH! I'm so jealous right now!! I wish so bad I could have been there to run it with you again!!! You got an AWESOME time!!!! I'm so amazed by you, and even MORE so after hearing about how sick you were the week of the race! I can't believe you were still able to get that great a time!
I'm not sure when my next one will be either...but I know there are more in my future...and I know another PF Changs Phoenix marathon is in my future, so maybe someday we will get to run another one together....
Congrats! And congrats to your brother too! Isn't it so annoying how boys hardly even have to train for things like this and they they can just show up and DO it! Crazy! Thats awesome for him!
Miss you! SO proud of you!!!! xoxo
I can't believe you beat last year's time with you being sick leading up to the race. You rock! And I'm astonished that Nick didn't train & ran a marathon...what?!
Ok, so many things! First, NO your parents are not crazy for renting out their house because they are going to like $15,000 a week. Second, I was salavating at the title of his post and then nearly vomitted when I was what it was about! How do you do these. I keep wanting to, but finding time to train seems nearly impossible! I dont know how you do it. Third, I LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog books!!! I love that you do one for each of them every year. I would like to do that but I put everything on the blog. What is the difference between your family one and their individuals... other than the obvious. I am working on our Blog one right now and it is taking forever!!!
Congrats on your run, you rock!!!
You amaze me! Your pace is awesome...you were cruising! And you have to be sooo proud of yourself for beating your last year's time, especially after barfing all week. That is truly incredible! Wish we lived by you so you could whip me into shape! I think it would be a blast to work out with you! Congrats!
You are still amazing and way better than me. Good job and I hope you recover soon.
Talk about a HUGE accomplishment! I don't think I could ever complete a marathon. The thought of running in one makes my muscles sore.
-Camberley
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