Running Mom's Motivation

The dog and I are slowly acclimating to the heat. We have been running in the morning. It is the only time I dare take him as I had a least 2 patients die from the heat this weekend. Despite running at 6am, the temperature has still been near 80, and let's not even talk about the humidity.

This morning's run was funny. We passed by two dogs that we see all the time. The last time we went past them I swear the bigger one was trying to push the smaller one over the fence after us. Well today the little one didn't need any help. He just jumped the fence on his own. I wasn't really worried about him coming after us because every time I turned and yelled at him he ran back home. What really worried me was that he would be hit by a car. I was just about to go knock on the door to his house when I saw he had gotten back behind the fence. Resourceful little sucker!

In the last half mile of our run today, we passed an older woman running in the opposite direction of us. We were running up a hill. Shortly after we ran by her she turned around and started going up the hill. She flew past us, got to the top and started going back down. It was killing me to see her do hill repeats in this heat. I told her that running those hills in the heat was impressive. She said "I am from South Carolina, this is nothing." At least that made me feel a little better.

Total Miles for 2008 = 364

Posted in: on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at at 7:57 AM 0 comments  

So we have been living in Virginia for almost a month now. I am really enjoying it so far and David and the kids seem to be adjusting well also. Figuring out where to run has been a challenge. I don't exactly like running in the city. I used to live in a pretty good sized city I know...But my previous house was so convenient to so many places that didn't make you feel like you were running in a city. It was a great place to run. But I wanted to make this a positive post. I have been bound and determined that I will get my running groove back.

When I have been running I have mostly been going from the house we are renting. It isn't too bad, but there aren't many sidewalks in this city. It is a much smaller city than we used to live in, but right now, it still feel like I am in the city. I have been able to figure out some short 3 to 5 mile routes that seem to work for me. And I don't mind running the shorter distances in the city. I also live less than two miles from work, so one day I ran home for lunch, picked up the dog, and ran back to work. So the short runs aren't too bad. The problem is all I have been doing is short runs and my stamina is severely lacking.

Saturday I was able to finally check out the area I wanted to try to do some longer runs in. I went to the Petersburg National Battlefield. I slathered on DEET (more about that later) and took the dog and headed out. I was very excited, especially when the woman at the gate said "have a nice run." She obviously knew what I was there for based on the way I was dressed. I was hoping her greeting would mean there would be a nice place to run.

I started out on a trail near where I parked the car. It was nice and I got to see a few cannons from the Civil War. But in no time I was back where I started. It was only a half mile loop! So I started on it again thinking I would take one of the trails I had seen coming off from it. Pretty soon I was back at the beginning...another half mile loop. I was getting discouraged. I had wanted to run 8 miles, and there was no way I could make 16 laps here. I took another trail. About 3/4 of a mile in I was running out to the highway...not my idea of a scenic, relaxing run. I entered back into the park on the opposite side of the highway thinking maybe I missed something. Boy was I right.

Across a bridge from where I entered the park there was a 3.5 mile one way road. There were two lanes. One was for driving, the other was for biking, parking, or hiking. It was gorgeous! Most of the road is tree-lined, so there were only a few spots where the sun was really beating down on us. It was only after I started out on the road that I started seeing all the other runners. There were plenty, and now I could see why. Very rarely did I actually see a car. The other really nice thing was that there were miles of trails off the main road. Any time I got tired of pounding the pavement or the sun got a little hot on the road, I was welcome to head off road and explore the trails. I finished my 8 miler (my first in over a month) in a much better mood than I had started.

Now back to the DEET. There is just one little thing about Virginia that I am having a hard time adjusting to. TICKS! They are everywhere. David had one crawling across his hand in our dinging room one night and I have pulled one attached one off me. We have taken to doing tick checks and when in the battlefield DEET is definitely necessary. I enjoyed the battlefield so much that I took the family back today. When we did our tick check this afternoon we didn't find any on us or the kids. We did however pull thirteen (YES...13!) off from the dog. Luckily, thanks to Frontline, most of them were dead, and those that weren't hadn't started feeding yet. So if you ever come to Virginia, don't forget to pack your bug spray. We may not have enough to share.

Total Miles in 2008... 334

Posted in: on Monday, May 26, 2008 at at 8:21 PM 0 comments  

I have been running. I haven't been writing. There is a lot going on in my life right now...so build a bridge and get over it ;). Just kidding. Our family is going to be moving and my life is consumed with packing fixing up our home and work. For any of you that I know personally, you should know that we lost all our email addresses, and our old email will only be up for a couple more weeks. Send us an email so we don't lose contact with you!

Total Miles This Year =211

Posted in: on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at at 8:30 AM 2 comments  

Well, here it is...I know that you have all been on pins and needles waiting for this report. Hope you enjoy.

I was really hoping for a 50 degree morning last Sunday. That would have been perfect racing weather for me. When we got up at 5:30 am it was already 64. We got to the parking lot with time to spare, but then has to wait for my SIL's friend to show up. So, I barely had time to get a quick bite to eat (cinnamon rolls were the pre-race snack..yum) and to do a half mile warm up. I got in line for the porta potty when they started saying we needed to line up. They kept telling up we were going to start "soon". There were probably 200 of us in line when the Mayor of Gainesville started talking. Suddenly in the middle of her speech, the gun went off!!! I looked around and saw that not to many people were getting out of line, so I took my jacket to my brother and walked to the start line. It made for a very disappointing start for me. I was probably close to 1/4 mile into my race when the national anthem started.
I purposely took the first 3 miles easy. I was feeling pretty good at that point and picked up the pace. At about mile number 5 the hills started. When I asked the people in charge of the race about hills about a month ago they said that they couldn't get any elevation information to post online because the elevation was so low. They said there were "a few hills" for the half on 16th street. Those first couple hills were just fine. I was feeling really good and thinking that I was going to be just fine. I don't really know how many hills there were, but at the last one around mile number 6 I was really dragging butt. I found out later that my Sister-in-law and her friend walked this hill. About 3/4 of the way up the hill a volunteer told us it was the last hill. That was definitely reason for celebration, but I was a little disappointed to find that over the rise, the hill continued.
Despite how hard those last couple of hills were, I felt like I could still finish with the 11 minute pace that I was hoping for. At about mile number 8 I was really starting to feel like I wished I had the time for that porta potty before the race. I stopped and had to wait for what seemed like a lifetime while the person in front of me finished up. I swear the porta potty was rocking and I was wondering what the heck was going on inside of there. But, after my pit stop I did feel much better and my pace improved again.
I am guessing that it was about mile number 10 when we went through a big balloon arch and the volunteers seemed especially lively. I stopped to drink at this station because I felt like I just really didn't get enough liquid down me at the last couple before it. I started up again just in time to come to a very busy cross road where for some reason we were expected to stop instead of traffic stopping. When I came up to the road I was completely dumb founded. I was the first runner up there in our group, and thought that maybe I had missed a turn. The Police Officer at the intersection just looked at me as I was looking around for another route and didn't say a thing. The rest of the group caught up with me and we all just sat there and waited for our light to turn green. I have to admit that my thoughts were less than gracious at this point.
In the next section of the race we had a loop around the inside of the University Of Florida stadium. I was really looking forward to this. When we got there, we just ran around the inside of the concourse. It was hot and there was very little air movement. It wasn't nearly as much fun as I had imagined.
At about 11 miles there was a couple that I came up behind. It was obvious that the woman was struggling. Her SO kept alternating between running a little ahead of her and coming back and holding her hand or arm as if he was pulling her along. How sweet.
It was shortly after this, that my chills started kicking in. I knew I didn't have long to go and that I would be just fine, but I was definitely ready for the race to be over.
As I came into the last quarter mile, I saw my husband, kids, brother and Sister-in-law cheering at the side of the road. I really needed the boost. My youngest daughter didn't see me right away but as I was running away from her I heard her yell "mommy!" I guess she jumped up and started trying to run after me and had to be rescued before a couple motor cycle cops ran her down.
I already knew that I wasn't going to make my goal time and I really didn't have any kick in me, so I didn't really finish all that strong. But I finished. Towards the end of my training with the bad weather and the problems we were having with our house and vehicle and my husband losing his job, my running really was pretty weak. I had resolved to not worry so much about my goal pace and just go out a finish. I was a little disappointed when I finished, but looking back on it, I think I ran the best race I could have. The original times that were posted were wrong, but the official chip time had me at 2:29:05. I am satisfied with an 11:22 pace for my first half, and it gives me something to shoot for next time. I liked this distance. I hope to do more of it.

Posted in: on Friday, February 29, 2008 at at 10:34 PM 5 comments  

I know, I know...I haven't blogged in a while. I am not going to write much today. I just wanted everyone to know that I finished my half marathon today. I will try to write more later, but for now I am tired.

Posted in: on Sunday, February 24, 2008 at at 3:31 PM 3 comments  

I know, I know, I haven't blogged in a while. I had great plans to tell you all about my running anniversary. Turns out I didn't run that day. But I have been running for a more than a year. Sometimes I can't believe I am still actually doing it.

My training is starting to ramp up. I am running 5 days a week starting this week. And my boss took a trip to Florida with her family over the last week. So you see, I have been kind of busy. I have a feeling that I will be blogging less as we get closer to the race on February 24th.

We have had some really warm weather this week. On Tuesday I went to track near work to do some intervals. I ended up wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but had to pull the shirt off half way through my run and just run in my sports bra because I was so hot. I am hoping for a perfect 50 degrees on race morning.

Later this weekend I have a 10 mile long run scheduled. It is the same distance as my long run last week. I ended up doing last weeks long run on New Year's Day. I was trying to figure out how to fit in all the workouts and with all the snow we had at the time I figured I would break the 10 miles up into two five mile runs in one day. I went out at 4pm and 9:30 pm. Both workouts were horrible, but the second was especially bad. At least wading through 8 inches of snow made me really work. That is one of the only days that I think I really wore the dog out. When I started to get ready for my second run, he looked at me as if to say "Really? Another run already? But we just got done!"

I will have a new format for my posts. I won't be keeping track of my total miles because it was just an estimate anyway. I will post my 2008 total. I doubt I will hit 1000 for the year, but we'll see.

Total Miles Today = 3.2 Total Miles in 2008 = 39.7

Posted in: on Friday, January 11, 2008 at at 7:26 AM 1 comments