2010 kennesaw locomotive half marathon

I ran this race last year and you can read about that here. If you ran and are looking for your results, you can find them here.

I got up Sunday at a very respectable 3:45am and was on the road to Kennesaw by 4:15. It’s supposed to take a little shy of two hours from door to door, but I hate stressing about being late and would rather be ridiculously early, and I was. I got down there at about six, parked 50 feet from the start/finish area, and picked up my number. This year, they did b-tag chip timing, which is just a strip that stays on the back of your race bib instead of attaching to your shoelaces. Semi-upgrade, because there was no timing mat at the start. The number of participants definitely grew this year. I noted 258 half marathon finishers last year and the results list 438 half marathon finishers for 2010.

The original course has been changed for the better. The first year had you doing basically two loops of the main sections of the course, but this year, you ran a little further out and avoided circling around. These are technical terms. I’m not familiar with the area, so I have no idea where we went other than we went down a really nice downhill around mile three and the mile 4 uphill turnaround from last year, which you had to do twice, became a mile 7 downhill. Before the race started, the race director (I assume) made an announcement about there being a 1.25 mile uphill at mile 5.5, or I think that is what he said. Later, I couldn’t remember if it was supposed to start at 5.5 or 6.5. Either way, I kept waiting for it to start and it never came. The new course is much less hilly than last year in that it has more gentle rolling hills and fewer steep ones. I think maybe the worst one is at mile 10.5 and it’s not too bad. I think I just dislike it because I remember being tired as heck on it last year.

The big boo-hoo on the course is that you both start and finish with a lap around the shopping center, which is maybe 0.4 mile or so. It’s a little anticlimactic to run in a little circle at the beginning and end, but I guess them’s the breaks.

I ran 1:55 last year and hoped for about the same this year. Anyone who has been looking at the numbers on my weekly recaps has seen my pace steadily decline for about three months, so I was concerned that I wouldn’t even get it in the ballpark. I ended up feeling pretty good and tried to stay steady around 9:00/mile the whole race and finished in 1:57:33 (8:59 avg). My first mile was the slowest at 9:15 and mile 13 was the fastest at 8:48. I have trouble picking a pace and sticking to it, so I feel good about being consistent, if nothing else.

The price for this event went up quite a bit this year. Last year, I paid $40 to register the week of the race, I think, and early registration was $35. This year, I registered about a month in advance (8/25) and paid $60 ($55 registration + $4.80 processing fee on GeorgiaRunner.com). The tshirt was basically the exact same as last year, except on a white long sleeve tech shirt instead of a sherbet-colored shirt (sidenote: I had no idea until right now that the word is sherbet and not with an R, as in “sure-bert”). The medal is nicer and train-shaped instead of being one of the generic olive branch+ logo in-lay type ones. The course is a big improvement and much more pleasant than last year, in my opinion. I’m not sure I’m in any better shape than last year and even though my finishing time is slower, last year I’m pretty sure I wanted to crawl on some of those hills. They also had a lot of food afterward, but I didn’t eat any so I can’t report on that.

official results:
1:57:33
151/438 total finishers
46/220 females
12/36 age group

weekly recap

This week I hit a little bit of a snag with my ankle hurting, but I took off almost three days and felt good on my long run Saturday. Everything else hurt, but not so much ankle pain. This week was different in that I met up with my buddy Katie and her friend (new-to-me friend) Denise at 5am (!!!) on Saturday to run with them. I usually start around 6:30am so it’s still cool, but not pitch black outside since I am alone, so this run was pretty awesome to have about two hours of running in the dark before the sun came up. That and having other people around made the time fly by and it was nice to arrive home around 9am and have the day in front of me. I chose to spend it falling back asleep for 45 minutes, waking up to gnarly cramped up legs from curling up on the couch, and then detangling my hair so I could go see my friend Artee for a hair cut. She took pretty much all of my hair off and straightened it. Here is the picture I took in the car to show Brian:

Then I skated with Lisa for an hour and got all sweaty and ruined it. Typical. I am feeling a little tightness in my calves from yesterday, but ran a few miles tonight and have a light week in front of me running-wise, which is great because I have a ton of things to do for school. I’m running the Locomotive Half Marathon in Kennesaw next Sunday. I had something come up that I need to be in upstate South Carolina that afternoon, so that is going to be a challenge. Maybe it’ll motivate me to run a little faster, you know. I would like to get a long run in midweek, but I am not sure if I will make that happen or not. I turn 28 on Thursday…crazy because I still feel like I am about 12.

9/5 sunday – off
9/6 monday – 6.58 miles, 63:54
9/7 tuesday – AM 5.04, 48:13
9/8 wednesday – off
9/9 thursday – AM 3.10, 27:46
9/10 friday – off
9/11 saturday – AM 19.32, 3:19:18 (avg pace 10:19/mile), PM skated 8.43 miles, 56:46

total miles run: 34:04
total run time: 5:39:11
total cardio time: 6:35:37

fall races

The weather has been so good this morning that I finally signed up for a couple of races that I had been procrastinating, the Locomotive Half Marathon in Kennesaw on September 18th and the Athens Georgia Half Marathon on October 24th. I have been sitting in my office imagining being outside in cool, breezy weather but I can’t remember the last time I woke up and went outside to temperatures in the low 70s.

I ran Kennesaw last year. It was a bit of a boring course that mostly ran through office parks and shopping centers, but the pickings are slim for local September halves, so. The price is a little higher than last year (which was cheap). It was a toss up between this one and 13.1 Atlanta on October 3rd. I think my long run the week of October 3rd is about 22 miles and it wouldn’t make as much sense to build the long run around the half because I would inevitably at least be taking some break after the race before running the last 9 miles…at least in September I can either do a 19 mile long run another day that week or it won’t be as big a deal if I’m piecing two runs together. I’m also somewhat familiar with the area that the Locomotive is in and I think it would be easier to keep running around there if I opted to do that.

The Athens Half is the week before the Ridge to Bridge Marathon, so it will be my last long training run. My schedule calls for a 1.5 hour run that week and needless to say, I don’t run a 1:30 half so it will just be for fun. There aren’t any big local races and I did not want to miss this one. I’ve also run the course a few times…pretty stoked for this!

I can’t wait for long sleeve and shorts weather!

goody two

I fell off the internet last week. We started our senior testing and I was pretty busy with work, but I am adjusted now. I think I could say a lot of things, but if forced to do so in a paragraph oriented, conversational matter, I won’t. So, I am going with some short thoughts:

- One of the tendons in my left ankle was bothering me pretty well last week. I ran most of the Charity Chase on the far left side of the road and it was a little sloped, which I think is what made my tendon sore. I ran Tuesday and Wednesday under the “well, it only hurts when I walk” logic, then took Thursday off in an effort to ward off lasting pain. I was rewarded with feeling 100 percent back to normal on Friday. Normal as ever, anyway.

- I was going to register for Greenville’s Spinx Run Fest Marathon, but changed my mind when I heard about the Ridge to Bridge Marathon in Morganton, NC. I registered just in time before the race reached the cap of almost 300 runners and I’m pretty stoked about it. It’s held the same day (October 30). One major change is the HUGE downhill for the first half of the course. This initially sounds sweet (and is sweeter than an uphill first half), but I will need to do some major hill running to prepare for a course that’s got so much downhill and no uphill to recover. Not really sure how to deal with training for that. The course looks really pretty and I have been lurking on their message boards where the people seem friendly and odd enough.

- My old phone died a little while ago and I had to get a new one, which was a sad moment. The new phone sends updates from my Google calendar, which was annoying since I hadn’t used Google calendar in about two years. I reset it with a once per week reminder of what training week I’m on (18 to go, 17 to go, etc) because I am always forgetting and doing the wrong thing.

- Working on a mild obsession with Silk Light Chocolate soymilk + frozen banana + vanilla protein powder.

- The other day I ran past a group of middle or high school aged kids and this one boy goes, “I just don’t know how you do it.”

- Heatwave. What’s the perfect time to run when it’s this hot? It’s 9pm and 85F right now, will dip down to a balmy 75F between 4am and 5am, and back to 80F by 7am, maintaining about 84% humidity the entire time. Getting up very early is possible, but I can’t run from home when it’s that dark because a) there’s about 20 feet of sidewalk and b) people are freaks and I don’t want to run in the dark in the country because it scares me. If I go to Athens, I don’t have anywhere to shower afterward unless I go to the gym…and I can go to the gym whenever, so there’s no value to getting up early to go there. I’ve been settling with some daytime gym runs and then shorter evening runs at home, but will probably suck it up and figure something out soon if it stays this hot, which it will.

Here’s what I ran the week before the half marathon.

5/30 sunday – 3.13, 27:18 – it was raining really hard this day and an SUV pulled up to me, not quite stopping but just a very slow roll. The passenger window rolls down and this older woman looks at me and says, “it’s raining.” I was like, “yooooouuuuuuu BISH!” I mean, was she trying to be helpful? I was clearly aware it was raining because I was soaked.
5/31 monday – off
6/1 tuesday – 7 miles, 61:33
6/2 wednesday – 45:00 spin class + 5.0 miles 45:18
6/3 thursday – 7.05 miles, 62:33
6/4 friday – off
6/5 saturday – Charity Chase half marathon – 13.1 miles, 2:09:24

total miles run: 35:28
total time run: 05:26:06 (avg pace 9:14)
total cardio time: 06:11:06

May totals: 162.43 miles run, 24:07:27 time spent running (avg pace 8:54)
YTD miles: 742.21

And then the week after. Pretty boring week; I was both a little tired in general and trying to give my ankle a rest.

6/6 sunday – off
6/7 monday – off
6/8 tuesday – 6.64 miles, 60:00
6/9 wednesday – 6.71 miles, 60:00
6/10 thursday – off
6/11 friday – AM 7.0 miles, 65:20 – PM 3.3 miles, 27:49 (4 yasso 800s)
6/12 saturday – 8.03 miles skating with my buddy Lisa in about 55 minutes, 3.0 miles run afterwards 26:34

total miles run: 26.65
total time run: 3:59:43
total cardio time: 4:54:43

charity chase half marathon race report

This was totally brutal!

On Friday afternoon, I scampered to turn off my computer and drove about four hours up to Hickory, NC for the Charity Chase Half Marathon on Saturday morning. My parents live on the other side of Charlotte, near Pinehurst, and my mom drove over to spend the night and go to the race with me. We got all checked into our hotel and drove just down the road to the packet pickup which was at another hotel. It was a pretty small affair and easy to navigate through picking up a map, bib, and tshirt. The race was sponsored by Fleet Feet and they were also giving a reusable shopping bag and a pair of Balega socks to all the runners. The socks felt pretty nice, but I gave them to my mom (“Thanks for driving three hours to see me, how about some…free socks?”) so I can’t comment on their awesomeness.

Now, I don’t know how many people reading this have been to Hickory, but looking at a map of this place was insane. All the streets are numbered, but are short and curved and not in a grid, plus there are all these 14th Street Ave, 3rd Street Drive, 3rd Street, 5th Avenue Place, 5th Avenue, etc. Really similar names if you’re not familiar with where you are going, or apparently even if you’ve lived there a long time because we couldn’t find anyone who could show us how to get to the starting area in Union Square on the map. It ended up being just a couple of turns. We also tried to drive a little of the course to see what it was like, but only made it about three miles before making a bunch of wrong turns and giving up. Down a hill, up a hill, whatever. We lost a street marking for the route and decided our efforts would be better spent on finding somewhere to eat dinner. That took a while, too.

Anyway, the race started at 7AM and I woke up at 5:30AM mostly out of fear of multiple alarms and wake-up calls going off at the same time. I probably should have been more concerned that when I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, it was already 68 degrees outside. It felt pleasant when we got to the starting area, which had tons of easy parking. The announcer said they had 600 people registered this year and I noticed about 400 finishers on the results compared to 300 last year, I think. The race is a charity fundraiser (obv) for a bunch of groups in Hickory who man-and-woman all the water stops and receive a portion of the money raised, which was $40,000 this year. This race has to be doing something right if they’re generating proceeds like that from such a small race, especially when they’re still delivering the “nice to have” perks like chip timing, tech shirts, etc.

Before the race, a tiny petite person wearing a Brooks ID uniform came up and introduced herself (and her husband). Kristin registered for the race on Wednesday night and drove from the other end of the state to get there. She was super nice and the first other Brooks ID person I’ve met. I have to mention that she was very unassuming and I was totally impressed when I saw the race results and she was the female winner in 1:28:xx. Woah!

Well, now I have ruined the suspense of this race report because you know I did not win. JK. I think I thought it would be cooler in western North Carolina in June or something, but the heat and humidity this morning were unbelievable. I checked and it was 82-97% humidity between 7AM and 9AM. The course started off downtown, went down a large hill (don’t worry, you’ll re-visit the uphill), up a hill, and turned into some nice shady residential areas before plunging into a newer subdivision where trees are of minimal importance or value. Take another turn onto a road, run through some other residential stuff (?) with some rolling hills, and then onto a bike path. The bike path had some decent little hills and a lot of turns so you couldn’t see what was coming up until you were there. This was around mile 5 and I was already feeling it pretty bad. I was carrying a plastic water bottle that I planned to drink until it ran out and I could throw it away and get water at the rest of the water stations. They had water every two miles on the first half of the course and I think every mile in the second half.

When we got off of the bike path, a guy said to someone else, “the worst of it is over.” Total lie! I saw him after the race and he said he was just trying to be encouraging or something to that effect. We went through some semi-residential semi-crappy area…if you’ve been to North Carolina you probably know what kind of place I am talking about, where half of the stuff is old and possibly abandoned, but maybe not. I hit the halfway point just around an hour and figured, sweet, if I can pick it up a little I will be done in an hour, no bigs. I should mention that this whole time I was just barely running 9 or 9:30 miles. I was not really trying to run faster, but usually the default speed is a little better for the first few miles. Around mile seven was one really, really long medium incline hill that just kept going. It was another ugly area of town, no shade, long hill, and earned a super thumbs down from me. It was crazy hot and I was sweating like a beast.

At 8.5 miles, we passed back through Union Square to make another loop on the other side of town. I saw the second place male crossing the finish and thought how nice it would be if I ran faster. I also saw my mom for a second. At mile nine, I decided to refill my water bottle instead of junk it because I was so hot. You’d have to pry that lukewarm 13 ounces of water out of my swollen, clammy dead hands before I’d give it up. I forgot to turn the auto pause off on my Garmin before the race, so I won’t have to-the-second stats for this phenomenal run of mine since it stopped while I was refilling. It took a solid 45 seconds to a minute to fill up and now I know why they are so darn stingy with the water in the tiny cups.

Sadly, I had to leave the nice ladies at the water station and continue up another treeless hill towards Lenoir Rhyne College. My mom asked if the campus was nice, but to be honest I’m not sure if we ran through it or not. Here at UGA, we like to plaster things with arches and bulldogs and cheap drink specials as to signify our immediate and domineering collegiate presence, but there was nothing so obvious that I noticed around LRC.

There was this one really terrible hill before the mile 11 water stop and this volunteer ran down the hill, starting being all “you can do it!” and ran up the hill with me. It was freaking awesome. Where was she for the other two hours I needed her?!? Shortly after this, we headed back down what was the first hill in the race. Even running downhill, I was hitting 10:00 miles. It was rough. The mile 12 water station was at the bottom of the last big hill. Even though there was only a mile left at this point, it would be nice if they could scoot it up the hill for some extra motivation to tackle the hill. I needed the motivation because I was running near this guy with the most obscene pair of shorts that I have ever seen in my life. I do not know what they were or what they were supposed to be, but every jingle jangle was visible. I’m linking a picture, but only because his number is obscured and you don’t wear shorts like that if you want to fly under the radar. Back into downtown, lots of happy people cheering, and the finish line. I finished in 2:09:24. Not my best and not my worst, but definitely the toughest to finish. The course was difficult but not impossible, but combined with the weather this one was a bruiser. I finished 10-15 minutes slower than I expected and felt like I was just on damage control to deal with the heat from about mile 7 onward.

I’d love this race if it were in another month of the year. I think all my half marathons have been between September and February, so June is going out on a bit of a limb weather-wise. They had a lot of food and drinks at the finish area, and you also got a free ticket to see the Hickory Crawdads MLB team play that night, which is awesome! I did not use mine because I wanted to get home in time to watch my old team, the Classic City Rollergirls, play Augusta. My mom and I checked out the farmer’s market that was going on just next to the finish, then checked out of our hotel, got a coffee, and headed our separate ways.

the little race that could – run the reagan half marathon

I wrote last night about how we were getting snow and I wasn’t too sure if this race was going to happen or not. I’m impressed that the race organizers decide to delay two hours instead of cancel, and then delayed another two when it was clear that starting at 10AM wasn’t going to be enough. The organizers did a great job of making it happen. All of the races ended up starting at 12PM or 12:15PM. That is my kind of race! Or it would be if I didn’t wake up at 6:45AM trying to figure out if I was going to get down there or not. I made it without incident, but drove like a grandma and it took me an hour and forty minutes to go sixty miles. That might be the first time I have ever taken longer to drive somewhere than Google Maps estimates.

I’ve been to Snellville before, but just briefly for a roller derby practice (and that might have been Lawrenceville). The race is held on a closed highway. You run 6.55 out, turn yourself around, do an optional hokey pokey, and run back. Ronald Reagan Parkway is about the least scenic place I’ve ever been in that there’s just nothing whatsoever to look at. No natural beauty, no stores, no billboards, just pavement. The snow probably helped out a lot, too. There are also unrelenting rolling hills. Nothing too huge, but consistent and you get to run down whatever you run up. The wind was pretty solid and brutal on the first half, but had some joyful little bursts at my back in the last mile or two. That is about it for details on the course.

Due to my insanely slow speed of driving, I got there 20 minutes before the start and they didn’t have my race number (I knew that would happen because things like that always happen to me). Filled out a new form, went to the bathroom, and hopped into the starting area. Since I was “tardy to the party” as it were, I didn’t really reevaluate what I was wearing when I left my house two hours before: tank top, long sleeve, another long sleeve, vest, full length tights, knee socks, and regular socks, plus gloves. I think it was in the 30s. I should have taken off the second long sleeve, but I didn’t have time to figure that out and do it before the race started, so I was a little toasty. My feet were also wet before the start, but that didn’t bother me until the eighth mile or so (cue Eminem music) when they felt really, really wet.

I did not have a time goal for this race. Mostly I wanted to just run and feel comfortable, which I think I did, and I didn’t really want “comfortable” to take me over two hours. I really like telling myself I’m only going to be doing something for a certain amount of time. The road was surprisingly clear. The water stations were mostly under overpasses, which was kind of a weird decision given the already present ice/people dumping water cups and making ice (I did this once and then realized that was a bad idea…full disclosure). Several of the aid stations only had one person working them and I’d guess they had a lower volunteer turnout due to to the road conditions around Atlanta, so thanks to those people who left their cozy houses to come volunteer in the cold. I ended up finishing in 1:58:59 (Garmin time). Something weird was that my Garmin was reading about .05 long on the course for the first half, and then pretty much immediately after the turnout at the mile 7 marker, it was .05 short. I ended up with 13.04 on the Garmin. Whatever, I’ll take it. I’ll update the post when I have actual results.

Overall, it was a nice, low key race. It’s hard to say what it would be like at full force in decent weather, but I did notice tons of people wearing shirts from past years, which reflects well on the race. Course is pretty plain. I would say a little challenging, but not too much so; maybe more fun with a buddy. The shirt is okay (white long sleeve with the logo) and the medal is pretty cool.

Basically, not super exciting, but it was a fun way to get my first 13 miles in and I’m glad it wasn’t canceled. I drove back to Athens and hopped on the treadmill for the remaining seven. I forgot to bring a change of pants and had to wear my tights and felt like a goober. I did remember an extra pair of shoes and socks and rescued my shriveled feet from their watery dungeons, but I’m not sure they have forgiven me yet. Olympic ski jumpers and speed skaters provided some distraction. I think I have to study for my statistics exam now. Bummer.

Here’s what I did this week. I wrote all of this week’s dates as last weeks in my notebook. Dur. This was not the best week. I was stuck in a funk and couldn’t seem to motivate myself to do anything, including exercise on a couple of days. I couldn’t get to any spin classes on days that I needed to run. I did pull my snowshoes on Friday night and take Heidi out for a walk down a road/driveway that goes around the pasture behind our house.

2/7 sunday – nada
2/8 monday – 30:00 swim class
2/9 tuesday – 7 miles, 61:57 – avg pace 8:51
2/10 wednesday – 10 miles, 89:47 – avg pace 8:59 + 40:00 swim class
2/11 thursday – 6.57 miles, 60:00 – avg pace 9:08
2/12 friday – nothing
2/13 saturday – run the reagan half marathon – unofficial 13.05, 1:58:59 – avg pace 9:07 + 7.0 mile treadmill follow up, 65:27 – avg 9:21

total miles: 43.62
total run time: 6:36:10
total cardio: 7:46:10

*Edit: here are my official finishing results.
chip time: 1:58:56:07
avg pace 9:05
39/102 female
6/13 age group

four letter words that start with s

I’m starting to think that I’m carrying around some bad race juju. Temperatures in the 20s during my last 5k, and now it’s snowing. The website for Run the Reagan says the start will be delayed two hours, putting my 13.1 start at 10am. The race is an out and back on a closed highway. I’m not really sure where that ranks in prioritizing clearing ice/snow. Pretty low, I would guess. It will take me about an hour and a half to get down there via 78 and 316, so I’m going to have to wait and see if the roads are clear in the morning. If everything is go, I have the feeling it’s going to be another tights+socks day…it’s super cold out there! The high for tomorrow was supposed to be 48F and now it’s saying a high of 37F.

Sorry for the bathroom photo. My arms weren’t long enough.

splitting runs

I’m looking for some advice if there’s anyone in the mood to dole it out. I have a half marathon this Saturday and I’m wondering if it would be good to do another run later on Saturday since my “long run” will only be 13.1, or if adding extra miles later in the day is not really going to do anything beneficial for me? This Saturday will be five weeks until ING Georgia. I know you should only split long runs if you have to, but if I’m just going to be running miles to run them and have them in the books, should I skip it? Is doing a 13 early and 7-ish later going to help in terms of marathon training? I’ve certainly coasted my way through some training before, so it’s not that I’m hell bent on meeting a quota; really, I’d just like to know that if I do it, it served a purpose. Twenty at once is not the same as thirteen, wait a few hours, and seven.

long run o’ doom

Chilly and windy as hell (15-20 mph). Oddly, even though I did a mostly out and back route, the wind was only ever at my back for a glorious 10 feet. Not sure how that works. Things didn’t go so great today, but I am happy enough that I didn’t cut it short. Something I was thinking about a lot is how if you are into running longer distances, people are like WHAT! YOU RAN WHAT?! but it is relatively normal for someone who does it. Part of this is because there are always outliers that make things seem relatively normal. Running a marathon is NBD compared to someone running Badwater or similar intensely long and difficult races. Being vegetarian or vegan is weird to some people, but a piece of cake compared to someone who eats macrobiotic food or raw food only. A lifestyle usually isn’t too difficult because it’s your lifestyle. Someone out there is always going to be taking something to more of an extreme, but holy hell, that doesn’t mean things aren’t hard sometimes. Just because I’ve done it before or have run further doesn’t make running 18 miles easy. So, give yourself a pat on the back if you’re someone who cranks out mega miles like it’s normal. It’s really not and therefore, I consider you a badass. I almost consider you a badazz, but I’m not sure yet.

Highlights of my run today:

- At mile two, passing a guy in his yard and him saying, “nice day for a walk, huh?” Fail! I was running into the wind and getting blown over already, but going this slow on mile two is never promising. I may or may not have been redeemed when I passed him again around mile 10 and he walked out the door and said, “holy cow!” I was kind of glad that he was not outside when I passed again at 15+16.5 ish miles. It would have been awkward.
- HUGE HUGE black dude peeling out of his driveway on a MINI bike. This would have been fairly entertaining on its own, but the bonus was a pit puppy or Staffordshire chasing him for a tenth of a mile or so until he couldn’t keep up. This was conveniently when I reached the puppy and for a quarter of a mile or so, it acted like I was chasing it and was all freaked out. He wouldn’t let me pet him, but he nuzzled my calves while I ran and he had a wicked overbite. Also, gigantic leg muscles. He’d put our Staffordshire to shame and Spikey is a muscle-y little dude!
- Reaching a stream I needed to cross on the dirt road that was basically going to be key to my sweet local running route and finding it about fifteen feet wide, rock free, and flowing really fast. That turned my two loop plan into an out and back + other junk added on for more miles. Also, rain+silty dirt roads = running on the beach, but less like Baywatch. More like Outtashapewatch.

Yeah, not exactly a Glamor Shot. Don’t judge. But that is the road behind me.

- A bunch of cyclists riding by around mile nine. I was pretty miserable today, so seeing some other friendly people out was a decent pick me up.
- Nothing good happened for a while. Ran slow, was miserable. Got honked at (after seeing above pic, maybe I consider myself lucky for this). Stopped by my house for a drink.
- Mile 17. PUPPY TIME! This super chunky puppy ran over while some kids and a grown up were riding four wheelers in their yard. I thought it was a really fat grown up dog; no doughy look, just looked like a totally obese Jack Russell. He wouldn’t leave me alone and I didn’t want him coming with me, so I played with him for a minute. The fat little kids on four wheelers wouldn’t come get him and I had to wait for the adult to get off his four wheeler, PUT DOWN THE KID WHO WAS ON HIS LAP, and come get the dog, who he said was four months old. But who doesn’t like puppies? This was a like a puppy run, in that I got tired as hell in the first minute and also that I met a couple of them. We don’t have animal control in our county, which is why you might notice that a long run post will never go too far without mentioning the roaming dog factor. It would be like not mentioning the weather or how far I ran. They are everywhere.

Next weekend I’m doing the Run the Reagan half marathon in Snellville (one of ten zillion Atlanta suburbs that are mostly identical), so it will be a little respite from the long runs. I’m crossing my fingers that it doesn’t rain. After that, ING Georgia Marathon in March and Warrior Dash Southeast in May. Maybe some shorter stuff in April (Terrapin 4.1, Twilight 5k or Twiathlon), but I haven’t registered for either of those yet.

Here’s what I ran this week!

1/31 sunday – swim 1000 yds, about 32:00
(January total miles: 137.71)
2/1 monday – 7.0 miles, 62:18 (8:54 avg) – swim 800 yds (30 min class+10 minutes beforehand)
2/2 tuesday – 7.0 miles, 62:00 (8:51 avg)
2/3 wednesday – 3.0 miles, 26:14 (8:44 avg), 45:00 spin, 30:00 swim class (500 yds)
2/4 thursday – off
2/5 friday – 8.5 miles, 74:56 (8:48 avg) – this killed my legs for some reason. ow.
2/6 saturday – 18.10 miles, 2:52:25 (9:31 avg)

total miles run: 43.6
run time: 6:37:53
total cardio: 7:54:53

Today is Brian and my six year anniversary. Yeah! Happy anniversary, B!

pinehurst turkey trot half marathon results

My mom and I did the turkey trot in Pinehurst last year on impulse. I had been slated to run my first half marathon on Thanksgiving in Atlanta, but when I got up here the night before the race and saw an ad in the paper, it seemed like as good an idea as any to get my first half marathon over with the next day. It was freezing; I think the high for that day was 41 degrees. I don’t think I even really owned any “running clothes” at that point besides shorts and I ran in shorts, a t-shirt, and thermal long sleeve. I finished the race in 2:16:xx, cold and dead tired.

The race is small and sponsored by the local hospital. It begins at the hospital, leads out for a pretty flat first several miles into some very rolling residential areas around Pinehurst Lake for miles 5-9.x, and then back to the hospital on that flatter stretch for miles 10-13.1. The hills in the middle are punishing because they’re pretty constant around mile 7 and on with a mixture of long, mild rises and short, steep hills. My personal favorite is the run up a hill, make a turn, and run up another hill combo, which abound here. Here’s the little elevation profile from my Garmin. I’m not really sure how these things work since that dip at mile 2 is the same location as the deep dip after mile 10.

My goal this year was to beat last year’s time or risk severe self esteem issues. I didn’t figure a PR was in the picture since I had tough time last year and I knew it wasn’t entirely my lack of experience, so I tried for the elusive goal of “having fun.” That’s kind of a wash since usually I have fun when I do something reasonably well, otherwise I stew and get mad at myself. So, doing it right ended up being my goal and I feel pretty good about my race.

I woke up super early (5:30am) and couldn’t get back to sleep despite the fact that I was running for funskies and didn’t have anything to worry about. Eventually, I got out of bed and ate some breakfast around 7am; two pieces of raisin toast. New goal is making myself eat more food even though it’s unappetizing, because I’m inevitably heading out the door knowing that I’m still hungry. We left around 8am for a 9am start time for me and a 9:30am start time for my mom’s 10k. Temperatures were in the 40s with forecasts for 50s later on in the morning, so I wore shorts, a short sleeve, and a long sleeve. I had done packet pickup on Friday night and waited in line forever. It definitely seemed like a bigger event this year than it was last year (though it’s the 29th one, so it’s not like it’s new), but still a pretty small field for the half at around 300 runners.

During the first few miles, I did my best to run a speed that felt comfortable and easy to me and not worry about all the shuffling around as people get into their groove at the beginning. Knowing the course ended up being the best part about this race because I knew what I was going to have to save more energy for later (whether I had any, eh) and during the beginning I just kept thinking that the harder sections wouldn’t begin until mile 5 or so and not be over zealous or pumped that I was feeling good early on. When I started hitting the harder sections, I kept thinking about how I was miserable at this point or that point last year, and feeling really good about my progress since then. Each hill I ran up felt like a mini victory if I remembered walking it last year. I stuck with water from the water stations at mile 5 on, and ate an espresso Hammer Gel at the halfway point even though I didn’t want to. Again, trying to do the right thing even though it’s so unappealing, yet delicious. I spent the next half mile trying to make sure I didn’t have brown gel smudges on my face since it was all over my hand and I didn’t want to be looking like I just tore through the candy store on my way to the finish.

I wasn’t sure if I was just exceptionally wimpy last year because I didn’t run a lot of hills and my longest run had been 10 miles previously, but around mile 7.5 I definitely conceded that it was the course and not just my wimpy self speaking. Mile 7.5 until mile 10 were the hardest miles for me, but luckily that isn’t too long of a stretch and I knew it would be flat once we got back to mile 10 and cross the railroad tracks. I ran most of this behind a couple pushing a baby stroller and I just did not feel motivated to pass them with the constant up and down hills. They would’ve probably just passed me a minute later, so it didn’t seem worth the effort to go around them (yes, that felt like effort at that point) on an uphill and I didn’t want to be one of those people who sprints passed on a downhill only to slog along in front of you as soon as it’s uphill again. I was running a bit slower during this section since I was just matching their pace and didn’t break away from them until mile 10 (though they passed me towards the end and finished a little bit ahead of me – my mom actually knew the lady). There were not many people around so it was kind of nice to not be just running along by myself. Miles 9 and 10 were my slowest splits (9:23, 9:31). Last year, I got passed by an old lady around mile 7 or 8, so I figure getting passed by a guy pushing a stroller is a slight improvement.

The last few miles, I kept telling myself I’d walk through the next water stop. My favorite tricks involve lying to myself, such as giving myself a 10-15 foot area where it’s okay to walk, and then running through it and not letting myself walk until the next stop, repeat. This works as long as I’m not tired enough to actually stop in that area, which I wasn’t. I hadn’t walked any of the course, so that became motivating enough to finish without a walk break. It was also getting narrow to make it under two hours with those slower miles in the middle and I figured I’d be so mad at myself if I took a superfluous walk break that pushed me over two hours. We started passing 10k walkers around mile 11 (downhill! woop woop) and I looked for my mom, but didn’t see her there. Nothing much to note about the last couple of miles. They seemed less flat than they were when they were the first couple of miles, haha. I spotted my mom waiting for me just before the turn to the finish. I finished in 1:59:15, which was 54/144 women and 17 minutes faster than last year, and then my mom took photos of me bending over to take off my timing chip. ? My Garmin gave me 13.19 and a time of 1:59:26 (I stopped it while I was taking off my chip). There was no timing mat at the start, but I also only started about 20 feet back, so NBD.

Having fun, goal accomplished. I felt really good the entire race, even when it was hard and I was going slower than I wanted to be going. The mental parts of running are the hardest, so staying relatively in control of my pace and not having to walk at all on a hilly course felt like a huge accomplishment. Here’s a couple of the things I have learned in the past year. As you’ll see, I haven’t learned that much.

- Don’t worry about what other people are doing. It doesn’t matter who passes you or how minuscule or giant their butt may be as they pass you. They don’t have to carry your beat up carcass the rest of the race because you wanted to have a mini-race at mile 2, but you do. Conversely, don’t pass people if you have to speed up to do it. Unless it’s the end. Then run like hell. Or lurk behind them for a while, then run like hell.
- Look down when you run uphill. It makes it a lot easier and seems flatter.
- Eat! Drink! Even if you don’t want to do it then, you’re probably going to wish you did later and by then it’s too late. This goes for breakfast, too. I’m going to start getting up really early and eating before I feel nauseous. Then I’m going to brainstorm a hobby that doesn’t make me feel like I have freaking dysentery beforehand.
- Please, thank you, and a smile go a long way, as they do in most other endeavors. Don’t be a jerk. I saw some grown man yelling at a course volunteer, who looked all of about 12 years old, because there was a car on the road. Actually, there were a lot of cars on the road because it was a residential area (and the kid was doing his job, which was keeping cars from an adjoining road from entering the main road). Look out for number one, but be nice to everyone else too, please. Being polite makes us all winners. Being a total turd while running a half marathon doesn’t earn you any extra medals.

Here’s me being sweaty and almost done while someone else is walking around all cool with his medal, and then my mom and I afterward. It would be awesome if I looked mildly physically fit in any photo taken of me, but instead I look like I’m power walking or heaving most of the time. If you’re wondering why I don’t have a small yeti piggybacking me, it’s because I got a haircut a couple of days ago. My legs were super sore last night, but some Aleve fixed that and I am feeling good today. My mom finished her 10k about five minutes faster than last year, and beat some people to boot. Go mom!