Running Mom's Motivation

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  

This may be the last year that my girls sleep in on Christmas morning. So I had to take advantage of the opportunity to go for a morning run. I was up at 6:30 this morning and out the door by 7. It was a perfect morning for a run and singing Christmas carols, which I did in my head through the entire run. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't have time to complete a run before the girls got up. Not only did I get my run in, but I got back home and had time to crawl back in bed for a nap and to warm up before the girls got up.



On a side note, Under Armour really knew what they were doing when they named their clothing line. I fell today on my run. It was no big deal, I just wasn't paying attention enough and tripped on a lip in the sidewalk. The great news, is that my Under Armour Cold Gear tights protected me so well that it didn't hurt at all. I didn't even get a scrape. Those things are expensive, but worth every penny, even if being actual body armour is not their intended use.


Total Miles Today = 5 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 733

Posted in: on Tuesday, December 25, 2007 at at 10:31 PM 0 comments  

If I haven't said it before ( I know I have), Maria is an awesome friend. This morning was my long run. I was a little apprehensive about it because I had such an off week last week. But the good news is that the training plan I am using has me doing the same distance for my long run two weeks in a row. So since I missed a nine mile run last week, I did the same distance this week and didn't really get behind.

Maria has had a very hectic schedule this week. She worked three extra days and has multiple Christmas parties in various cities. On top of all that, her oldest son is on a travel basketball team and both of her sons had a birthday party to attend this week. I don't know how she keeps up with it all.

So you can imagine my surprise when my dear, sweet friend offers to come and do my long run with me. Keep in mind that Maria lives about an hour away from me! It almost didn't work out because her husband had plans for the day and their family has another party to go to this afternoon. But Maria's husband said he was willing to hang out with the kids if she could be home by noon (Thanks Ronnie).

So the plan was to start the run at 8am. At 7am Maria called me and asked me what the weather was like here in Lansing. She explained that there was a typhoon in Fowlerville and that she liked me a lot, but that she wouldn't risk her life to run with me. After we determined that the worst part of the storm had already passed Lansing, she continued on towards "the other side of the world."

We started our run just after 8am while David and the girls slept in on the futon in the living room. The miles seemed to pass so fast this morning. There were a few times that the wind picked up bad enough that I seriously felt like I wasn't moving at all. I learned that when the wind is that bad you just need to look at the ground to convince yourself that you are indeed moving forward. As we came into the last 100 yards or so, Maria said she was going to try to convince me to do the run at my half marathon pace, but that with the wind she thought it would be too hard. When we stopped, I quickly pulled up the history on my handy dandy Garmin and found that we had run an average pace of 10:21!!! That is faster than my anticipated pace for the half. Maria told me that she suspected we were running faster than usual, but that she didn't want to jinx me...she is an awesome friend.

Total Miles Today = 9.35 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 728

Posted in: on Sunday, December 23, 2007 at at 11:06 AM 0 comments