6th Half Marathon on the horizon

Shnikies! How did THAT happen!?! SIXTH?

It's true, this Saturday I'll be participating in the St. Jude Half Marathon in Memphis, TN making it my SIXTH 13.1 distance event.

You can read about two, three, four, and five on my blog.

(Almost) four years ago, after my first half marathon, I swore I'd never do one of them again. I HATED it and it took me 4 hours and 18 minutes to complete.

This past April, at the same race I did 3 years prior, I PR'd in under 3 hours (2:58).

That, my friends, is progress. And proof that slow and steady wins completes the race.

Thoughts on training for my 4th Half Marathon in 2012

It's been a busy fall. So busy, in fact, I haven't really mentioned much about my St. Jude Half Marathon training I've technically been doing since the end of September.

St. Jude will be my 4th half marathon in 2012 and my 6th overall. Craziness.

However, I have to say, the training for this one has been much more mentally difficult for me. After my triathlon in July, I decided to "take a break" from endurance events. The triathlon marked my 4th one in 2012 and I knew I had St. Jude on the calendar in December. My body and mind needed a break. I continued to swim and spin through early September. I've ridden my bike several times in late summer and into this fall, but I kind of stopped running very much at the end of the summer.

The first 4 weeks of "training" were dismal. As in, I don't think I had one week where I completed all runs as scheduled until mid-October. Oops.

And I've been slow. My half marathon race time in April was a sub-3 hour, I ran a 5K in August in around 38 minutes. Those are around 13:30 min/mi and 12:21 min/mi paces respectively. My times the last few weeks have been in the 14-15 min/mi range. It took me a a few weeks to get ok with that.

I don't have any time goals for St. Jude. The goal is to have fun with friends and finish.

The problem I have had the last 4 weeks or so though is that I wasn't ENJOYING running it was a chore, but finally tonight I felt JOY while I was running. It was getting dark and it felt SO GOOD to not let the time change, or that my mom left town from a 4 day visit, or the fact I've eaten my weight in southern, bacon fat, fried, butter filled food over said 4 day visit be an excuse. Apparently, I'm fueled by fried chicken because my 4 mile run clocked in at a 13:30min/mi pace tonight.

It felt good.

It makes me a little less scared about the 10 miler I have on the calendar for Saturday. It makes me a little less concerned that I'm the least trained for this race more than any other race I've ever done. I always do a 12 miler before a half, but since I goofed off the first month of training, I don't have time. It will be ok though because I will finish the race.

And I will have fun.

Race Recap: Seattle Rock n Roll Half Marathon

I know, I know it's been a week since this race and I haven't shared a recap yet. Well here it is. It's pretty pic heavy because I took like 30+ photos on the course. A first for me for sure.

I decided to do this race while I was training for the Country Music half. I already had a trip to Seattle planned to attend a conference for work June 19-22, then I saw the Seattle Rock n Roll race was June 23rd. I can just stay the weekend, I thought, and it's only about 8 weeks between Nashville and Seattle so I can just keep my mileage up and it will be easy peasey.

WRONG

Oh, how I forgot after training 4 months for a race you just want to be done training for something. Combined with the fact I was scheduled to begin training for a sprint triathlon this summer, I didn't quite do the mileage I should have during those 8 weeks.

With my focus on triathlon I only ran 1-2 times a week and the longest run I did was 8 miles. I've never felt so physically unprepared for a race before. And that's BEFORE I got to Seattle and was go, go, go for work during the 4 days leading up to the race. Come the Thursday before the race, I didn't even know where to pick up my race packet or how transportation to the race would work.

My co-worker suggested I just eat the race fee and skip out. For some reason that was never an option for me. I don't bow out on things just becausee they are hard or uncomfortable. Even if I walked every mile of the course, I was going to finish this race.

I got up at 5 AM and quickly got ready before the Starbucks in the hotel opened at 5:30 AM. I got a coffee, banana and wheat bagel from Starbucks for breakfast. I was lacking the protein I normally consume race morning, but as you've probably gathered I wasn't exactly prepared for this race and SBUX didn't have any peanut butter. Fail.

Even though the start line was only about a mile from my hotel, I took a taxi to the start line. I originally planned to take the monorail, but apparently you have to buy tickets for that in advance. I still got to the race start by 6 AM.

After waiting for about an hour (and meeting some Nashvillians in the process), I proceeded to the porta potties before getting in my corral. This guy was freaking out because it was 15 minutes before the 7 AM start and the line at the bathroom was so long. He was in corral 15. NEWSFLASH at these huge Rock n Roll events, if you are not in the first 5 corrals, you don't have to be in your corral right at 7! He had a good 30 minutes before his corral would start, but he was so so anxious.

The gun went off while I was in the porta potty. Then, I got in my corral (39 of 47) and waited....and waited...

And waited some more. It was like 8:07 before we crossed the start line.

Lots of cheer squads out on the course with the bands. Some dressed up, like these KISS girls. Overall the bands were more punk/grunge than Nashville's country and pop/rock country bands.

The race started out great and honestly I felt like I had a really strong race for not really being as diligent training as I should have been. Since I'd only done up to 8 miles, I expected to hit a wall at mile 9 or 10 and walk the last part of the race. Amazingly, this never happened and I was able to keep up with my quarter mile intervals of running/walking. Sometimes running a half mile before walking if I felt really good.

This girl was the BEST RACE SPECTATOR EVER. Seriously, is this not the best sign you've ever seen at a race before?

Good thing she was where she was because we had just turned the corner (around mile 5) and saw this HUGE incline. This picture does not do this incline justice, but believe me it was STRAIGHT UP for about 2-3 blocks.

Half way up the hill.

After tackling that incline, we headed towards Lake Washington.

Near the lake, they had a large group of military supporters and right along the course they had set up photos of killed in action military. So emotional.
 

After passing by the lake and going through a tunnel we ended up running on an interstate towards downtown.

Entering the downtown area, another view of the space needle. This was around mile 11.

Running along the byway with the Harbor to the other side. Great views for the last few miles.

Finished #5! My official time was 3:16:28, which is the 2nd fastest half I've ran. Not bad for piss poor training. Best finisher photo ever - love the space needle.

Gym Class Heros were playing at the finish. I thought that was kind of fun!

I still can't believe how incredibly great I felt during and even after the race. I never hit a wall. I never thought, "I can't do this." I felt amazingly blessed for this strong body I have. It allows me to abuse it by not training the way I should, and then busting out 13.1 miles.

After the race and a quick shower, I had the most amazing burger and onion rings at 8oz Burger Bar. Then, explored Capital Hill, went shopping, got the best cup of coffee, then walked down to the water and rode the ferry over the Bainbridge Island. We spent the afternoon/evening exploring the small town on the island and having drinks at the cutest place overlooking the water.

This race was everything I wanted it to be (a 13 mile tour of Seattle) and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an awesome destination race!

Country Music Half Marathon Race Recap

Team Super Stove before the race

I've put off writing this recap for a couple days now. I guess I just don't know what to say about the experience other than I went, I ran, I conquered.

Obviously, I couldn't be happier with my performance. If you had told me in February 2011 I'd go from not ever wanting to do a half-marathon again, to doing my 2nd one in 3:35 to finishing this one in under 3 hours, I probably would have rolled my eyes and told you to get out of my face.

KG likes to constantly remind me that not oh so long ago I told her, "Karen, not everyone is made to be a runner!"

But now, I am a runner.

The morning started out with a 3:45 AM wake-up call. Considering my corral didn't leave the gate until 7:43, a 4 hour lead time seems sort of ridiculous looking back. But I heard from a co-worker the interstate was backed up from downtown all the way to the airport by 4:30 AM. Traffic is not your friend on race day. We didn't take the interstate.

We parked at the finish line and took the shuttle to the start line. We basically walked right up and got on the shuttle and we were at Centennial Park by around 5 AM - it was still dark outside.

I should have taken a picture of my breakfast, but I had a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter in the car. I have eaten this (bagel + peanut butter) my last 2 races. It's sort of tradition now. I also had coffee on the way.

Since I knew we had so much time to kill before even starting the race, I brought a banana along with me.

I made the decision to not wear my camelbak for hydration. I thought I'd be fine with the hydration provided on the course, but I regretted this decision by mile 2. I trained every week with my camelbak. I should have just worn it. I carried my phone, ID, and honey stingers in a SpiBelt instead.

After the mandatory port-a-potty visit, we meandered around towards the start line. By this time, the first gun was well past. It was probably about 7:20 when I went into the corral. Just so we're clear, the corrals were a clusterf*ck. I was originally assigned to 32, but I got moved up at the expo to corral 28. I was doubting my abilities so I thought I might go in more at 29, but the back corrals were missing for some reason and when I went back a little farther in the line, I found the end of it. Knowing I was way faster than where the walkers would be at the end of the line, I went back up to find corral 28. There was 27 and 29, but no 28. I ended up getting in just behind the 2:45 pacer. Sure, that was a pipe dream, but I figured it was better than having to run around people.

Well, I still had to. I'm not sure what the heck happened in the back corrals, but even though I started up early enough to be with a 2:45 pacer I had to consistently weave in and out of people who were walking the first few miles and pretty much the whole race. It kind of pissed me off. Don't get me wrong, I am all for people walking these races. Hell, I walked my first one and it took me over 4 hours to do it. But, I also was courteous enough to know to start in the back corrals and not with a 2:45 pacer. Corrals is where Disney has it right. They have volunteers checking your bib before you can enter a particular corral. Why have corrals if no one is going to hold people to them?

This with the fact that because there was no corral 28; twice the amount of people began during my start. Apparently this happened at least one other time during the start as my co-worker who was closer up in corral 17 also had two corrals go at the same time and experienced the same over crowding.

I know I took this part too seriously for what my pace actual is. I mean, I am no where near more "serious" runners, but I was dead set on killing this race and with every person I had to weave around or slow down for, I expended energy.

Energy that couldn't afford to be expended since it was HOT. I can't believe it's taken me this long to complain about the heat. I guess I expected it, but it was as sunny as can be and in the 70s, which feels like 90 when you are running. Since I didn't start until 7:45, I was hot before we even started. This is where I complain that they don't have enough water stops on the course and complain that most of the water stops were running out of water by time I got there. I mean what did the walkers do? If you are hell-bent on having a race in Nashville at the end of April, please have enough water. This complaint has come withe me all the way from CMM 2009. That's all I'll say about that since I know it's beating a dead horse. So note if you plan on ever doing this race: carry your own water.

Now that my two major complaints are out of the way, I'll say the first 6 miles were pretty much great as far as how I felt. I felt strong and pretty much kept to my intervals. At the 10K mark, you turn to go back towards downtown. The next 2 miles of the course are shitty. There's no other way to put it. there are about 5 BIG rolling hills along this stretch and it was by far the part of the race I was most angry about. All I wanted to do is get back to the Music Row area of the course. That stretch was a nice relief until I hit kind of a wall at mile 9. The one thing I will give this race is the amount of spectators. I never felt bored because it was fun to people watch the sidelines and every mile or so there was something at least interesting to look at even though I know the city like the back of my hand. Mile 10 I got a little bit of a 2nd wind because in my head I thought, "oh there is only 5K left. 5K is nothing, I'm basically done." Of course you forget the last 3 miles are certainly the worst.

I was unfamiliar with the course at the 10/11 mile mark. They've changed it since 2009, which is fine but when I kept thinking we were going to go straight there would be another turn. Then the stupidest part of the race happened. You come out of the Nashville Farmer's Market/Bicentennial Mall area and get back on what I think is James Robertson Parkway. You turn left to go away from downtown (the finish is just across the river from downtown at Titan's stadium). So you turn right and you have to go up what is probably only a few hundred feet just to turn around a median to go the right way towards the finish. S-T-U-P-I-D. This is at about mile 12, so I am pretty much done at this point anyway, but really they couldn't find somewhere else to make up this couple hundred feet?

Between mile 12 and the finish you wind back through downtown a little and I swear there are like 5 or 6 turns. Not the best mentally when you know you just have to make it over a bridge and the finish will be RIGHT. THERE.

The last two miles I really had to talk myself into finishing strong. I knew I had to average a 13:40 pace to finish in 2:59. My Garmin was at about 13:25 with 2 miles to go. I knew I couldn't slow down and in fact needed to speed up a little to not miss my ultimate goal. I made myself stick to running the last two miles of preset intervals of half-mile run, quarter-mile speed walk.

I ended up running the last 0.7 mile to the finish line at a strong 12:30 minute pace. As I came over the bridge to the finish, I felt chilled and slightly fuzzy. I knew I was about to take a turn for the worst if I didn't get some hydration soon. As soon as I crossed the finish, I grabbed 2 bottles of water, a Gatorade and a bag of pretzels (along with the cold wet towels they were giving out - great idea!) and found a place with no crowd to contend with and recovered.

I was done and I knew I conquered it.

Although I had a victorious race with a strong finish, I have no desire to do the Country Music race again. I'm not sure if it is an issue with Competitor (we'll see in Seattle, I suppose) or if the Nashville stop has just gotten too big for them to handle without extra logistics planned for. The course is painfully hilly, and the timing of the race (late April) is way too hot for Nashville standards. I didn't enjoy the process of this race as much as I did at Mercedes and Disney (but of course, how do you beat Disney).

Post race meal was Sonic, followed by dinner and margarita's that night with the whole Super Stove crew. Of course my post-race eating habits bled over to Sunday as well. :)

There is no shortage of fitness related goals here, but first I am planning on taking this week off from at the very least running. My ankle has been a bit sore since the race and although it's already improving I'm concerned there may be an issue with it from overuse since I've been training for half-marathons for 8 months straight.

I still love races, so as mentioned, I am planning on doing the Seattle Rock n Roll half-marathon while I'm there for a conference in June and I was already planning to do St. Jude in Memphis since I love a good winter race. St. Louis Rock n Roll and Disney Princess 2013 are on my radar too. Amongst all this, I am also planning on doing my first sprint triathlon in July. I will start training for that next week while I also try to keep up my endurance for Seattle.

Whew...

Official Race Finishing Time

2009 Country Music Half Marathon Time: 4:18:08

2012 Disney World Half Marathon Time: 3:34:55

2012 Country Music Half Marathon Time:

Earning an 1 hour and 20 minute course PR and a 37 minute half-marathon PR today? PRICELESS

Hopefully, I can get my thoughts together about the race and post a more comprehensive recap in the next day or two.

Thankful Thursday: Running Edition

I guess it's time for my weekly monthly Half Marathon training update.

Frankly, training is going great. I feel more than prepared for the race in 2 1/2 weeks. I don't want to gloat, but damn I've worked hard and I can't help but toot my own horn.

It's now onto my FAVORITE time of half marathon training....TAPER!

I won't do more than 6 miles in one run over the next 2 weeks. And I love that feeling! Yesterday I end up going out for 3 even though I didn't really want to. I skipped my normal run Tuesday because I went to happy hour instead. Then Wednesday I thought, "oh well I'll just get home and run around my neighborhood." Instead I changed and headed to a park nearby work.

Oh, the things your body surprises you with...


This is my fastest recorded 5K time, EVER! And it is beyond my "I want to run a 5K in under 40 minutes" goal. Can't wait to officially get a race time like this recorded.

This followed a great 12-mile run on Sunday. Yes, on Easter Sunday I got up at 6:00 am to head out to the country side and run along horse farms and country roads. It was beautiful and a great setting for 12 miles.



Obviously a bit slower pace than my 3-mile run last night, but I am more than thrilled with where I am.

Clearly, training for 2 back-to-back half-marathons has done wonders for my pace. I can now confidently say I am a runner. And more importantly I can definitely say I love running.

When I think back to where I came from 10 1/2 months ago, it's honestly unbelievable to me. I completed my first 5kin100days run on May 30, 2011. Prior to that, I had a hated relationship with running. One which landed me on bedrest for several days the previous summer. I started out what some would barely consider a running pace - around 15 minutes per mile, now with consistent training for the last 7 1/2 months I'm breaking into the 12 minute mile range. Truly unbelievable!

Therefore, I have to say I am grateful for my body. Thankful for the abuse it allows me to put it through so I can be capable of going out and running 10, 12, 13.1 miles. I need to remember this thankfulness to properly take care of this body and also not succumb to "stinkin' thinkin" thoughts about this body. It's the only one I've got and it must be cherished!

Update on Half Marathon Training

I haven't really updated since my 9 mile run a few weeks ago, but I've logged approximately 35 miles since that run. Crazy.

The week after I did 9 I had a "rest week" and did 6. It was the best run I've had all season. I ran a familiar course at the greenway near my house and pretty much killed it. Here are my stats:


See that pace? 13:17 minute miles! For someone that was logging 15 minute miles just a few months ago, that is big....BIG!

Coming off that run, I felt in charge and rejuvenated for my higher mileage week to come. I should have known better. Because typically every good run is followed by a bad run.

Since I only 6 over the weekend I wanted to log some higher miles during the mid-week in preparation for wanting to do 10 the coming weekend. I did a good 4.5 miler on Tuesday and 3.5 on Thursday rather than my normal 3 miles during the week.

The problem is, all last week I ate out and didn't really pay attention to what I was fueling my body with. I felt lethargic and wasn't looking forward to trying to do 10 in that state.

My plan was to get up Saturday and bust out 10 before having to be somewhere at 11. Yeah right. I woke up Saturday morning at 6 am and asked myself why I was trying to rush around Saturday morning when the rest of my weekend (i.e. Sunday) was free.

So rescheduled to Sunday it was. (Which, hello is a stupid decision on the weekend you SPRING FORWARD and lose an hour of sleep.)

But I dragged my lazy arse out of bed and eventually I decided to go out to do a course I did a couple times during my Disney half marathon training. It's pretty flat, but it does have some rolling hills on the later part of my out and back route I use.

Considering I ate a 9 course dinner on Saturday (no exaggeration), I felt like pretty crappy from the get go. I wasn't fueled properly and that made every step painful, but I kept repeating to myself "this pain is temporary, the pride I will feel from completing this run is forever."

I briefly considered only doing 8, and honestly since I'm a bit ahead of where I need to be for my race at the end of April it would have been ok. But I didn't want the reason why I couldn't do 10 miles to be because I ate and drank too much the preceding week.

So I went out 5 miles.

Honestly, it wasn't too bad once I got over the 4 mile mark. Of course the last few intervals were painful, but I'm a firm believer the end of every long mileage run should be difficult. That's when you're building your endurance up!

I ended up finishing just a little over 2 hours and 19 minutes. Another sub-14 minute per mile pace! Again, even two months ago I was running between a 14.5 - 15 minute mile.


I promptly went home, showered, ate lunch, and fell into bed. And didn't really move from there unless otherwise necessary until the next morning.

I don't know whether it was my post-run laziness or because I ran a sub-14 minute mile on a 10 mile run, but I. WAS. SORE. I can't remember the last time I was that sore. Today (Wednesday) is the first day this week I haven't felt my throbbing quads with every step. I even made it to my weekly gentle yoga class on Monday with little relief. I did a slow and easy 3 miles yesterday and I probably won't run again until Saturday.

I have to say, I've felt more in control of my running lately. Making sure I get in those mid-week runs really help. We're just about 6 weeks from race day and I can't believe it's coming up so soon!

Getting By

I'm not going to even mention how much of a shitty blogger I feel like. Not only do I never post, but I am also just continuing to maintain and not lose any weight. (Wait, this was me mentioning it, wasn't it?)

The one thing I've been pretty consistent with is sticking with my half marathon training runs. Sure, I've skipped a could mid-week runs over the last few weeks, but by and far I'm where I need to be 9 weeks before the race.

Today I logged 9 miles.

It took me 2:07:30 - so I'm continuing to balance out my pace at 14 minute miles. I'm ok with this pace since the goal for the race in April is just to finish and not hate it.

The run today was pretty good. The first mile wasn't painful like it usually is, but around mile 2.5 I started to get some cramping in my left side. I think my breakfast may have been too heavy - live and learn!

Miles 3-7 were pretty nondescript. The course I chose today is a very familiar one. One I run all the time, but it has a couple bigger hills and a few rolling hills.

I didn't take any shot bloks until mile 6 - about 1:18 in. I know I should have taken them a bit sooner, but with my previous stomach cramps I didn't want to upset my stomach. They didn't and with plenty of water it was fine, but around mile 7 I hit a wall. I took an extra walk interval before finishing up my last 3 running intervals at .20/.25, .50/.25, and .50/cooldown.

We are 9 weeks from race day. I have time to take it slow building my mileage so my next several weeks of long runs will probably look something like this:

Week 1: 7 miles
Week 2: 10 miles
Week 3: 7 or 8 miles
Week 4: 11 miles
Week 5: 7 or 8 miles
Week 6: 12 miles
Week 7: 8 miles
Week 8: 6 miles - taper
Week 9: Race day

My next order of business is to get refitted for new running shoes. I have been wearing the same model of Brooks Defyance (I've had SEVERAL new pairs of this same shoe) since early 2009. Three years and well over 90 lbs ago! I'm sure my weight loss has changed the way I run/walk and my shoes were originally fitted for walking.

I also need to pick out a swim suit to begin triathlon training in and join the Y. Why are endurance sports so expensive!?!

So I'm still here - I may not be doing great at blogging or nutrition, but at least I am still trucking with staying on task with something!

What's Next For Me?

It's not a secret I've been struggling with losing weight lately. And by lately, I mean since October which is when I got down to around 241 and then proceeded to gain and lose the same 2 pounds over and over and over.

But through the roller coaster, I've continued to exercise 3-4 times a week. Even the week after the half marathon last month, I made it to the gym twice. At this point, my exercise routine is just that, very routine. And I love that. As I was running my 8 miles yesterday, I realized I may weigh the same as I did 4 months ago, but I AM FIT. I can run 8 miles. I can do a 60 minute yoga class. I can ride my bike 10 miles at a time. And pretty soon, I will find out if I can swim.

I like goals to keep me on task. Even though my exercise routine is second nature at this point, if I don't have something to work towards I start to skip workouts.

So I signed up for my 4th half marathon.

Yep, I am crazy. There is a big Rock n Roll race in Nashville every April. This is the event I did my first half marathon at and hated it. Hate. Hate. Hate. So, I have a lot of anxiety and negative feelings towards this race. The hills are unforgiving on this course and the weather in Nashville can be brutal (it was 85 and sunny when I did it 3 years ago and 2 years ago there were severe storms and they had to cut off the marathon). But I am going to conquer it this year.

But there's more...

For awhile now, I've wanted to change up the half marathon running. It just gets to be monotonous to keep training and running 13.1 miles in my book. SO - after a Twitter conversation with Skinny Emmie, I picked up Slow, Fat Triathlete and was sold on doing a sprint triathlon this summer.

A sprint triathlon is usually about a 1/2 mile swim (750 yards), 12.5 mile (20K) bike ride, and 3.1 mile (5K) run. And I plan to do this in 2012.

I am targeting the Innsbrook, MO Octomax Triathlon on June 23, 2012.

Which, would mean serious triathlon training would begin at the end of March so for four weeks between the end of March and the end of April I will be training for both a half marathon AND sprint triathlon AT THE SAME TIME.

I feel a little crazy, but invigorated. It's a new challenge, it's something I've never done before, and it's exciting. It is also majorly scary because these thoughts are going through my mind:

- I haven't even gotten in a pool to swim laps in 20 years.
- I've never ridden more than 10 miles on my bike at once.
- I don't own a road bike.
- I have no idea what to wear.

But I will figure it out, because I want to be a triathlete!

Finally.....2012 Disney World Half Marathon Recap

What a terrible blogger I am...I have barely written anything in weeks and I've been saying for two weeks that I would recap the Disney World half marathon. I'm going to try to keep it short and sweet with just posting some pictures and captions.

The two days before the race we spent walking around Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios - I thought my feet were going to be toast for the race, but we left the parks early on Friday afternoon and had a low key dinner at the hotel. I think I was asleep by 8:30 the night before the race!

My race bib

THEN - We woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 2:30 AM - yes, you read that right - Two-freaking-thirty in the MORNING. The race started at 5:30. Painful.

On the shuttle to the race

The shuttle dropped us off, we porta-pottied, Vaselined (me), posed, and hydrated.

Pre-race picture

After using the porta-potties twice (nervous peeing), we hearded ourselves to the start line. It was about a half mile walk that took the better part of 20 minutes. It was kind of annoying, but at least we had given ourselves plenty of time! We still had over an hour before our corral started by this point.

Hearding the cattle...er...runners

Finally at the start line - they had the corrals so spread out from the actual start line - they had big screens to show the back what was going up at the start line. Crazy!


This guy was in full Jack Sparrow garb. How was he going to run in that? I'm still wondering...



Then we were off! They actually do full fireworks when the first corral takes off - pretty cool!

The race starts out on the streets around Epcot and heads in the direction of Magic Kingdom. It wasn't even daylight out before we entered the gates outside the parking lot of Magic Kingdom!

Can you find the little vegan aka Sarah?

It was pretty much awesome running through Magic Kingdom and right under the Castle (where we had dinner, two nights before). Then as you exit from the Castle, they have professional photographers ready to take your photo.



All business...



After exiting Magic Kingdom you follow the streets back toward Epcot. This is about mile 11 or 12 as we're making our way towards Epcot.


You run about a mile through Epcot (maybe a little less), then you exit back into the parking lot. I made the girls stop and take a picture at mile 13 :)



Right before we crossed the finish line...



The coolest medal ever - even cooler than Mercedes!



They gave us special buttons the next day at the Polynesian :)



We finished!

Official time: 3:33:45 - an 11 minute PR

As expected the race - and the trip - were amazing! Maybe it was the magic of Disney. Or spending 5 days with great friends watching them crush their first half marathon, but I seriously had so much fun that I would consider making this an annual trip. Even though we walked about 20 miles Wed-Fri, I felt strong pretty much the whole race. True, my feet hurt really bad the last 1-2 miles, but compared to my other half it was nothing. I didn't feel like I trained very hard for this race, but it proved me wrong. I was more than ready. So ready, in fact, I'm considering doing the Nashville Rock n Roll race in April. JUST CONSIDERING....so far.

I also caught myself thinking about a marathon while I was racing two weeks ago. I thought to myself, "Disney is the ONLY place I would consider doing a marathon." Then I quickly realized that I have never had any desire to do a marathon up until this point. Scary.

Of course since the race I've only ran twice...haha...post-race laziness is ensuing. I'm going to try and do 6 this weekend. It may be rough...

A Happy Birthday Indeed!

For my birthday, my lovely mother gave me something I've been coveting for awhile now...

A Garmin Forerunner!

I selected the Forerunner 405 back when Amazon had it on super sale. There are some bad reviews out on this particular model because of the bezzle feature; however, I figured I'd get used to it and figure it out.

Of course it motivated me to get off my rump and take it for a spin this afternoon. I was able to set run/walk intervals for it to beep every 1/2 mile / 1/4 mile.

It snowed last night so it was a chilly/windy run, but I loved running with my Garmin and I was pretty happy with where my pace was:

I feel blessed that I have a parent that is not only supportive of my hobby, but she is willing to buy me gadgets that she doesn't understand. I feel like this could be a new turning point in how I track future training. Happy Birthday to me!

Diary of an overweight runner - 3 weeks till Disney!

The Disney Half Marathon is now less than 3 weeks away (20 days to be exact) and I realized I haven't talked about my training much since this post almost a month ago. Since then I have done a 10 miler and as of today a 12 miler with a few 8 milers thrown in. A few notes on the last few week's worth of runs.

10 miles
Two weeks ago I set out for 10 miles. Honestly, it wasn't the worst. I was familiar with the trail and a pre-mappped my route, which was out and back, so I knew exactly where I was going. I had a little mental self-concious thing with this speed walker who I would pass when I jogged and then she would pass me when I walked and when she was in front of me she KEPT LOOKING BACK AT ME. C'mon trail etiquette police, isn't that totally rude to keep looking back at someone?! So I hit about 2-3 miles in the middle of my run a little too hard trying to pass her a few times, which is my own damn fault, but it also caused me to need to walk the last mile or so. I still finished 10 miles in approximately 2:34 - well within the time limit for Disney.

However, about an hour after my 10 mile run I got what I can only assume was a migraine. We're talking laid out on the couch, can't move, nausea inducing migraine. I often get headaches after I run, but I've never in my life (even outside of running) had a migraine like that before. It was so bad I got physically sick. All I could do for 4 hours is lay in the dark with the TV on mute and a cold wash cloth on my face and neck.

I'm pretty confident it wasn't a hydration issue since the week leading up to the run I was nailing hydration with 130 ounces the Friday before the run. I also carried about 25 ounces with me and drank 80 ounces in the hours after the run. I did decide to try a new routine the next long run.

8 miles
This was a good run. I was able to pretty much keep my 1/2 mile run, 1/4 mile walk intervals up and averaged approximately a 15 minute mile. I also had no headache after this run! I changed my routine and I hope this solves the issue going forward. Normally, I would just get up, get dressed, grab a peanut butter sandwich and immediately go out the door the mornings of my run. Last week; however, I got up about 30 minutes before I wanted to get dressed, had a cup of coffee, a glass of water and "woke up" before getting ready and having breakfast before leaving. It seemed to help because no headache last week or this week.

12 miles
Today was 12 miles and let me tell you I was NOT looking forward to it. Earlier this week I had an allergic reaction to amoxicillin and my run schedule got off pushing this run to Sun instead of Sat. Even though I got to sleep in yesterday, something about doing a very long run on a Sunday is not fun. I think my mental attitude really threw me off. I could not keep up with my 0.5/0.25 intervals even a few miles in, so I went to 0.25. Around mile 6 I hit a wall and was just kind of done. 6 miles into a 12 mile run is really early to hit a wall! I walked a lot between miles 6 & 7, ran normally miles 8 & 9 and probably less than mile 10. Then I straight up walked the last two miles. My time still came in at approximately 3:01 - hallelujah that is still 15 min per mile and way under the Disney time cap, but part of me still felt defeated. Sometimes, I feel I can just walk faster than my tired jogging shuffle where my feet are barely leaving the ground takes me. My feet hurt the last 5+ miles, I have blisters and my water bottle leaked all down my back. But it's done and now it's onto taper...oh taper how I love thee.

Fastest 5K time
So y'all don't think I just complain all the time, I'm gonna tell you about my fastest 5K time, which was an unexpected surprise since I haven't really cared about my overall speed this training cycle. Last Tuesday I worked from home because I had a terrible cough and was sick of hacking all over my co-workers. So, I took the opportunity to do my run on my lunch break. The weather was perfect - chilly and just rained. The stars aligned and I was able to run over a mile straight TWICE during my run around the neighborhood. Once I realized I was kicking major ass, I decided to make that run my fastest 5K time. I ended up doing 3.1 in 41.47, which beat my August 5K time of 44.29, and walked very little of the run. Success!

So, 20 days and I'll be a 3X half-marathoner. I want a 13.1 sticker with Mickey Mouse ears around it. Surely they make those, right?

Diary of an overweight runner - Disney half marathon training check in

After having a little nervous break down a few weeks ago over my half marathon training, things have been going better on the training front. I have missed one mid-week run because I had to go buy new tires two Friday nights ago and thus I did not go to the gym.

After writing that post, I did 7, then 8 miles and this week I did 9. And I have survived!

The 7 and 8 milers were pretty nondescript. I did them within my 15 min per mile training goal and I didn't collapse after either of them.

The 9 miler on Saturday wasn't bad either but trying out a new unfamiliar (unmarked) trail combined with the Garmin Fit app on my phone freezing at 2.5 miles, I had that horrible sinking feeling of having no idea whether I was actually completing 9 miles since I just did it by time; figuring I run about 15 min mile. I also turned around a little earlier b/c I didn't want to cross a 4 lane busy road towards the end and I ran out of trail. I mapped part of my run afterwards (it was too tedius to do the whole thing) and I at least came within .2 of 9 miles. If I can do 8.8, I can do 10, right???

I did like the trail, so I would use it again if I pre-mapped my run and knew where I was going.

A couple good things did come out of Saturday's run. 1) I was definitely running more than walking, I would run approximately a 1/2 mile and then run a 1/4 mile. (Or run 2 songs and walk 1). Also, after my Garmin app froze, I ran for 15 minutes straight or 1 mile without stopping.

I've always ran intervals with the longest run interval being 8 minutes when I did the 5K in August. So this left me feeling accomplished.

10 miles is up next. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, but I know I can do it. It may happen this weekend, but with being in St. Louis for the holiday I may only do 6 or 8 and do 10 the next weekend.

The race is less than 7 weeks away!

Weigh in - The most epic gain EVER

Last week's weight - 239.0

This week's weight - 246.2

7.2 lbs GAINED

83.2 total lost since June 2010

Yep, you read that right (and no it's not a typo). I had an epic gain of 7.2 lbs this week. Am I surprised? A little. I knew I would gain because of everything I've eaten this week, but 7 pounds? Yeah...wasn't prepared for that.

As Maren pointed out, "What's done is done and what's eaten is eaten." So time to move on. I plan to track my food this week and get back on the horse and hope for a big ass loss next week.

On the plus side I did my first long run in 3 weeks today and I didn't die. 7 miles done! It was rough since I haven't been eating right lately and there was too much alcohol and not enough hydration going on yesterday, but surprisingly it went well despite my gut rot and dehydration.

Given my huge gain this week, I am back to 9.8 pounds from my Garmin Goal. And 16.8 pounds from 100 lbs lost. Talk about two steps backwards!?

My goal is to have the Garmin by Thanksgiving and the 100 pound party is tentatively scheduled for January. We'll see how close I get in the next 4 weeks.

Back to square one!

I don't want to do this anymore

I am really doubting this whole half marathon training thing. We are now just 9 short weeks from race day and I haven't done more than 6 miles. The last two weekends I haven't done a long run. Furthermore, the last four weeks during the week I've missed runs like crazy. I have plenty of excuses, just pick one - working 50-60 hours a week, illness, traveling to Atlanta two weeks in a row. But when it comes down to it, my heart just hasn't been in it. When I have had the time to do the training, I just don't want to. I'd rather lay around all day and watch 5 episodes of Dexter (I may or may not have done this while I was sick last weekend....ok I did).

Thankfully I have 3 friends counting on me to show up on race day so I won't give up, but what the hell am I going to do to turn this around? I don't want to be one of "those people" who don't train for a race, show up on race day, have a miserable 13.1 miles and hate every moment of something that should be rewarding.

I feel more discouraged than ever because I feel like I've lost ground over the last 2.5 months. I was so good about working out over the summer. But lately? Not so much. I know 90% of the problem is work, but that's not changing any time soon so I can only figure out a way to deal with it.

I'll let you know when I figure it out.

All I can do is get through this week. This week, despite not setting a toe in the gym yet, I WILL do all 3 training runs. Tomorrow 3 miles, Friday 3 miles and Sunday 7 miles.

Even though I don't really want to.

There are good runs and bad runs

Aside from weigh in posts, I've been pretty absent from blogging lately. It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just after 8-10 hours a day in a stressful work environment, starring at a computer screen I don't really feel like blogging much in the evenings. After work I'm usually good to barely get my workout in and get a healthy dinner eaten before zoning out in front of the time waster aka the TV. I know I should watch less TV, but most days I don't feel like it.

Let's pick our battles here, and I'd rather battle my impressive sweets addiction I've let back into my life.

As I mentioned in my weigh in post earlier, I did get all 3 of my training runs in last week. Oh yeah. If you haven't followed amongst the long gap of updates, training has officially started for the Disney World Half Marathon I am doing in January.

After 2 weeks of skipping workouts, I finally completed a full schedule last week. And I realized you truly have good runs and bad runs. Thursday was a bad run. I just felt really off. I was at the gym on the treadmill. I felt overheated and I finally gave up around mile 2.5. I was so focused on my pace and how it wasn't good enough (15 min miles), I frustrated myself and talked myself into quitting.

I decided late Friday not to do the Germantown Bier Fest 5K as planned. I love this event so it was a hard decision to make, but doing 3.1 miles when I needed to be doing 5.5 as I outlined on my training schedule wasn't going to cut it. And I'm still not sure about running two days in a row. Plus, I needed to save the $35 I would of had to pay day of the race since I have a lot of travel coming up (Atlanta, holidays, Orlando)

I was so glad I decided to focus on my long run instead.

I woke up at 4:30 AM on Saturday morning (not on purpose) and laid in bed until my alarm went off at 6:15. Surprisingly, the too early wake up call didn't phase me and I was at the greenway by 6:40. It was a beautiful morning and I ran by 2 deer (twice) literally inches from the trail.

I decided to do something different and leave the phone (stopwatch and music) in the car. All I carried with me was my car key and water (I forgot the Shot Bloks at home, but I ended up not needing them) and off I went. When I was warming up I thought, "Crap, how am I going to do my intervals without a stopwatch." Silly me quickly realized the trail is pretty much marked every quarter mile, so I decided to take it easy and run a quarter mile, walk a quarter mile; out and back.

It worked like a charm.

I had been doing 5 minutes running and 1 or 2 minutes walking, but I was finding myself nosediving halfway through my runs. True, a quarter mile recovery walk is probably a bit too much recovery time, but it was easy for me to keep track of with no watch.

I finished 5.8 miles in my fastest time.

5.8 miles in 84 minutes. Of course that time is approximate since that includes walking to/from the car to look at the time. But by all conservative estimates, that is a 14:29 minute mile!

Timing my intervals by distance and allowing myself more "recovery time" WORKED!

Also, I got my head out of the clouds from Thursday's run and realized my pace is JUST FINE where it is for right now. I don't HAVE to be any faster for the race in January. I ONLY have to be able to do 13.1 miles in 3 hours and 30 minutes. And even if I take every last second of 3 hours and 30 minutes to finish, that will still be my fastest Half Marathon time, and an accomplishment.

So no more worrying about "going faster." My natural running pace right now is 15 minute miles and I am finally OK with that.

Diary of an overweight runner - First 'long' run

Today was my first official "long run" for the Disney Half Marathon in January. The word long is relative because in the grand scheme of 13.1 miles my plan to do 4-5 miles is not really long comparatively.

I ended up doing 4.8 miles in about 71 minutes, which calculates to about 14:47 minutes per mile. This included warm up/cool down. But it is still perfectly on pace with where I need to be for the 3 1/2 hour time limit on the Disney race. Proud of this.

I didn't really have a plan for what me run/walk intervals would be. I just listened to my body and ran when I felt like I could run and walked when I needed to rest. It worked out pretty well. I probably walked more than I needed to, but mostly I tried to run 5-7 minutes and walk 1-3 minutes.

I also tried shot blocks for the first time during a run. I ate 2 at the halfway mark and although I'm not sure I really needed them, I did not ever get a light-headed feeling like I sometimes do when I'm out doing longer distances.

I still don't have a plan on paper for training going forward, but I'm hoping Brad Gansberg can help me with that once I get off my ass and email him to take him up on his offer.

I hope to continue the "Diary of an Overweight Runner" series with a report on my training each week. The thought of doing the double digit training runs make me anxious. Yikes!

Diary of an overweight runner - Beginning half marathon training

This is the final week of the 5Kin100days program. Today I ran 4 loops around the library/park across the street from my neighborhood. 1 loop is a little less than a mile, I think, so I'm estimating 3.5 miles or so.

The run was good. Great even. I only wanted to die at the end and I'm ok with that. I'm no exercise expert, but I'm a firm believer that it should be hard. You are building your endurance. If you are training and your walk/run is easy then how are you improving? If it's easy are you honestly pushing yourself?

What's amazing to me is that today's run (10 minute fast walk/warm-up, 2 x 16 minutes with 1 minute of walking in between). I've found 80% of learning to run has been mental for me. Case in point: during rest weeks, I always think to myself, "oh, 4 minute intervals, this is easy peasey." And then it kills me. That's what happens when you go in over confident. I'll learn....maybe.

This weekend I will switch gears from 5Kin100days to my half-marathon training for the Disney World Half Marathon in January. It is 18 weeks away from this weekend and I must train to run 13.1 miles in under 3 hours. This frightens me, but I know this race is going to be one of a lifetime because A) my 3 very good friends (and first time half-marathoners) will be doing the race as well and 2) well, it's Disney World. Enough said.

I don't have a training schedule yet. Anyone out there want to build one for me? (I kid...sort of) This week at least I'll start with 4-5 miles of run/walking. I plan to do 3 runs a week + continue yoga/strength training.

I'm trying not to think about how I'm going to juggle a crazy work schedule and 10-20 miles of training a week. The important part is I know I can do this.

Another gain...

Last week's weight - 270.0

This week's weight - 270.6

0.6 pounds GAINED

58.8 pounds lost since June 2010

Well, well, well...I'm doing pretty good chipping down that 60 lb weight loss. I'm not sure why I've been hovering around the 270s, but this had GOT to stop.

I'm torn between cutting myself slack for last week and beating myself up for not being able to get it together.

Actually I didn't do *too* bad last week considering I spent 2.5 days out of town at a work conference, eating away from home AND I went to a wedding in St. Louis. I'd say ONLY a 0.6 gain is pretty much a miracle.

Sat and Sun were a little rough. I mean, there was PIE at the wedding PIE! And then there was the alcohol part...

Click for larger image

I also got in 2 days of exercise despite the fact I only spent 2 nights in my own bed. I walked/jogged 2 miles at the hotel gym and 3.75 miles Saturday in St. Louis.

Saturday was my first time jogging outside since I pulled by back last August. At the time I was on week 2 or 3 of Couch to 5K. I'm slowly starting to incorporate jogging into my workouts by doing intervals of 2 minutes jogging and 1 minute walking. Hopefully soon I'll have the confidence to try Couch to 5K again. 8 months and counting to shave 15 minutes off my half-marathon time. Can I do it? We will see....

Disney bound + beginning running again

Disney bound!

If you follow me on twitter, you probably already know on January 7, 2012 I will complete the Disney World half marathon. It will begin at 5:30 am. I will maintain at least a 16 minute pace per mile (or be kicked off the course). And I will do it with dear friends.

With Warrior Dash in September, this will be my next big half-marathon. Of course I'll continue to do smaller races in the mean time.

The biggest challenge for the Disney race is the time limit. I walked the Mercedes half with a 16:25 pace. I don't see myself getting much faster than that unless I begin jogging. My back problems have prevented much progress.

I've signed up to complete Brad Gansberg's 5K in 100 days program. I hope with some instruction and 35+ lbs lost since I tried running last August, I can overcome this issue. I have a weak back. I know the problem stems from a weak core and I am trying to fix it, but it is no easy feat when you carry the majority of your weight in your midsection. After running a couple 1 minute intervals last week I've also realized I strike too hard on my heels causing my back and hips to absorb the shock. I'm not sure how to correct this.

So running is still scary to me. Remembering all of the injuries I had last summer/fall (2 ankle sprains and the back pain), I'm really insecure about running/jogging causing an injury. All I can do is try again, if I end up with another back injury then I know I am not ready and maybe I need to go see an orthopedic doctor to have it looked at. I've never had imaging on my back, so there could be a slight possibility I have a slipped disk or something else causing the pain.

If you have any advice on running form or preventing low back injury, please, please share!