Looking Forward to Mothers Day

This weekend is going to be interesting. My son and husband leave Friday night for a Boy Scout campout, so the girl and I will be hanging together. Must think of some fun things for us to do, as that is a lot of hours! She has a soccer game and I am sure we will go to the library. Any good ideas - let me know! Saturday, we can go pick up our bibs!

Sunday we will both be running for Mother's Day. I am running a local 4 mile race and she is running the 1 mile companion race. Daddy is coming back so we can race, then he will head back out to pick up the campers. I am excited, some because it is a shorter race and because I know she is going to have such a great time. I am sad because the 1 miler starts 15 minutes after the 4 miler starts. No way this turtle will be seeing that show. Hopefully Daddy will take lots of pictures.

Today I slept in a little later as there is no bootcamp. I knew I needed to move today, but rain continued. Bummer, as I was planning to run during my daughter's gymnastics classes. She had two hours scheduled today. I ended up coming home and almost got sidetracked by a work call. I did get in the 45 minutes I promised myself and was rewarded with a sweaty 3.5 miles. Two more days to keep moving before I can take a rest day.

I also had 3 pieces of candy today. Not in the plan. Small steps.

Nature is Deadly

So I am a little wacked out this week. I am looking forward to the race, the weather looks great, the girls from Moms Run This Town are excited and life is good.

Well except for one thing.

I feel like crap.

My allergies are here.

Nature is kicking my butt.

Not me, but I feel like this

I don't always have allergic reactions to spring, but here I am sniffling, aching head and generally lethargic. Not happy, that is for sure.

Things have been very busy at work and tonight was the first night since Sunday that we were all home for dinner at the same time.

I don't think I can go pick up my packet until Saturday afternoon, and that makes me nervous. No real reason, but I haven't been to Georgetown in years and it is not exactly the easiest place to get to.

News just broke that Shalane Flanagan is running the race. I don't know much about her, but she seems very down to earth. I won't be anywhere close to her, but still fun to know.

My goals? I would like to finish sub 3 hours. Having a good showing equal to Woodrow Wilson and much faster then Disney would be great for me. Did I mention the weather is supposed to be great? Can't wait!

I just need to hydrate, sleep, eat and hydrate.

See you on the flip side.

Long Run Sunday

Today was my long run for the week. I needed to get 8 miles in, which takes me just under 2 hours. I had a very busy day ahead of me, so I knew I needed to get to it this morning. However, I had the worst night of sleep. I went to bed about midnight as usual, but then our daughter appeared in bed at some point, my husband was snoring up a storm and this morning my son came in to talk football. Ugh. Anyways, I just couldn't get going. I kept going over my schedule and what I needed to get done today, stressing myself out more and more as the minutes ticked by.

Finally I was able to get up and got on the treadmill after some toast with peanut butter. I had EIGHT miles to go. Why am I doing 8 miles on this January day? I am training for the Disney Princess half marathon in February. My long distance running trainer convinced me to sign up, before I knew it I had booked airline tickets and clicked submit. Laura's parent live close to me, so she pops into town and gives me that little push I need to go a little further, a little faster. She is working with a pacing group for Marathoners in Training in Columbus and I am slightly jealous of them. When she was here over Christmas we had an awesome Christmas eve run on a local trail and it was so fun to have someone chat my ear off as we clicked off the miles.

Any rate, I have my training plan all laid out and today said 8 miles. That is one thing I love about training plans, I just have to do what it says and the rest will come. I am a total list person, can you tell? (yes, I have even added something to a list so I could cross it off!)  I decided I wanted to run as much as I could, but still be smart about it. So I warmed up with a .5 mile walk, then ran 2 miles, repeated again. I fueled with some Skittles at mile 5. Then the last piece I alternated .25 walk with a 1 mile run. Mile 7 and 8 was spent negotiating the great balloon crisis of 2013, but I managed to get through it. 6 miles running, 2 miles walking. I listened to some Another Mother Runner podcasts that I wanted to catch up on.

The rest of the day I didn't feel very good and eating was not the most enjoyable. That hasn't happened in awhile, so I need to work on my sleep and food I think.

Had a little flashdance action going on today. Not sure what that was about.

After my meeting, I hustled over to the HS where my son was performing with the Pyramid Chorus. They were awesome!

Now time for the Biggest Loser. The first night is always so hard to watch. I can't imagine working out for 12 hours a day and then coming home and cooking!

Have an awesome day!

Here's to 2013

We rang in the new year with good friends and happy hearts. Now the work begins. I spent a good part of the morning doing nothing but sitting on the couch watching the Rose Parade. When I was going up in CA, my parents used to take us to the parade every year. Many years I had to be picked up from sleepovers  VERY early in order to get Pasadena and to get a good spot. I am still impressed by the imagination and execution of the floats. Some day I will take my family and maybe we will even go to the warehouses before hand to volunteer to apply the flowers to the floats.

I took my daughter to a playdate and then came home to loads of good veggies from the trays last night. Based on my twitter and FB feeds, I was behind the 8 ball and needed to get my resolution run in. I finally got off the stick around 2 pm and ran a 5k. My legs are tired as I have run almost every day since Thursday. It felt good to get some exercise.

I also joined a game on Dietbet organized by Run with Jess. I have never done one of these online bets, but I have gained quite a bit over the last 3 weeks and I figured I could use the motivation. Basically you put in $10 and work to lose 4% of your current weight. I weighed in on Sunday in the afternoon, ( in my clothes) and it was ouch, 154.5. I went back down on Monday, but last night brought my weight back up. I believe once I lay off the wine and snacks, I will be able to get back to my preholiday weight of 148 or so. Then we can go from there! 

Tomorrow is back to reality with work after over a week off. Luckily for me, its a rest day! Here we go!

New Year's Eve

I had a fantastic New Year's Eve! The day was just spent futzing around the house. I got some email chores done and worked on my goals some more. I think I am pretty happy with where they are right now, and I will share them soon.

So for the bonus race, my friends and I race the Fairfax 4 miler. It is a race located in downtown Fairfax city at 6 pm. I wasn't sure who would be out on the course, but it seemed to be a mix of folks who run all the time, and those looking to kick off 2013. I guess I was somewhere in the middle. It was weird racing in the dark and it was a chilly start. (Not nearly what it could be, but my muscles were rebelling a little bit. I had run  several days in a row previously, so I wasn't necessarily rested like I have been for other races.

I met Edye and Irma downtown and we were off. The route was essentially the same as what we run for bootcamp, only backwards and with a few other jogs added in. I was doing well and about mile 2 thought I would be able to run the whole race without walking. About mile 2.5 there was a water stop and an out and back over a hill. That was just wrong, IMO. In the end I walked some, but knew I had a chance to PR based upon the little Runkeeper voice that was checking in on me every once in awhile. I was able to finish strong and came in at 47:27. This was almost a 2.5 minute PR for me!

Soon after we headed home to get our eat on.

Waiting for Irma and her family to come over, I was hanging out on FB and generally relaxing, when who comes to my door then Lorna! My running buddy from DE. She was in town and had seen our postings on FB. It was so good to catch up with her and celebrate with everyone!

Fun was had by all, including an awesome demonstration of Gangum style by the kids. All in all, I am so lucky and happy. Hope you all had a good one too. Here's to 2013!

2012 - The Bonus Round

So I have set out to tell you about my year according to the races I ran. And I will be totally honest, I meant to be blogging about them all along so I could really bring you all with me. The time recorded at the end of a run doesn't tell you about the sights or feelings experienced during the time out on the course. Perhaps I will be able to do a better job of that in 2013. My resolution/goal list is already long, but I am going into the year with such confidence because I did it. I set out to run 12 races in 2012, one a month and I did it. I felt very blessed that Mother Nature was kind to me. I certainly know that many racers this year were not as lucky. The closure of the course at the Green Bay Marathon, the heat in Boston and the cancellation of NYC were all things I was very aware of. Which, I guess is progress in itself. In 2011, I wouldn't have been so aware of  news in the running world, unless maybe it hit the headlines on Yahoo.

So what is the bonus? Well for one, my racing in 2012 isn't done yet! I am racing the Fairfax Four Miler on NYE with 2 ladies from my bootcamp. I haven't been outside yet, but I can tell you it is cold inside! I have to figure out what to wear so I can stay warm, but not too warm. The swag was a great warm looking sweatshirt. I haven't tried it on yet, as I believe you shouldn't wear the swag until you run the race. Anyone else do that?

The other thing  I am very proud of, but wasn't really a stated goal was I gave up soda! I have had times in the past few years when I have gotten to the point of having a can of soda every other day at lunch. I had heard over and over again about how soda impacts your weight loss and how those who were successful, had given up soda as a part of their journey. I definitely keep an eye on my intake, but had pretty much given up on ever being a soda convert. I figured making sure I had plenty of water was more important. And let me say here and now, I am not saying I will never have another soda again!

October of this year I got sick and had to spend a few days at home. That typically means telecommuting and lying on the couch. Since I was sick, and totally focused on having my water, watching bad TV and sleeping, I didn't have soda for about 3 days. Then I decided to see where that might take me. Folks, I haven't had soda since October 10th, 2012!! Some days I really need something else other then water, but I can usually find something or just have a flavored tea or propel water. So far, so good and we will just see where it take me.

Enough about 2012, its almost time to talk about 2013! (of course, I will be writing "2012" for the next 3 months.)

Have a great day!

December - A Race to Remember

The December Jingle Bell Run was just pure fun! This is an 8k race in Washington DC, the same route as the miserable St. Patrick's Day run from March.

There were several girls from the Bootcamp I joined in October running the race together. Afterwards we had this fantastic lunch and gift exchange.

We all met at the hostesses house, waking up her kids and husband as we brought in our potluck dishes, found space in the frig and found our bibs and other necessaries for the race. We all drove down together and I was so happy the rain held off.

I had 2 buddies in the back of the pack for this race. Even though I had run races with friends, everyone was always faster then me. One of my buddies was a jack rabbit. Or so she said. She would race out of the start gate until she was out of energy and then do whatever she could to finish the race. She decided to stick with me, slow and steady.

The first mile we were right on our 13 minute pace. The race was full of folks in awesome costumes and they definitely were keeping me distracted. There was also a guy juggling the whole race who managed to stay just ahead of me. We kept our pace up and did some running and some walking. Debbie would pull ahead and then I would manage to get close again. It was a great motivation for me to keep up the pace and keep pushing to the end. I finished with a PR  of over a minute and a time of 1:04:57.

And with this race my journey of 12 in 12 ended. It was such a great feeling to set a goal and be able to follow through with it. More in the coming days and about what I learned and what's next.

November - Time to Give Thanks

So I had the best race for the Woodrow Wilson Half, could I still finish the year with good weather and great races? I lobbied the girls in the neighborhood to join me in a local 5k/10k. It was the Sunday before T-day, rather then the day of, so that appealed to me. So myself and 2 others registered for the Vienna 10k.

They had super cute shirts and it was close by - what more could you ask for? Um.... a flat course. This race was adding the 10k for the first time on the 10th anniversary. As a result it was actually the 5k course twice. What I didn't know was that it was the hilliest course twice!

We were on neighborhood streets and it was a pretty small race by the time the 5k folks finished. I am pretty sure there was a running group of some kind running the race together and that those with 10k bibs ended up finishing after the first lap. Boo! It got pretty lonely after that. To the point that the radios were squawking about the last racers. I felt the need to make sure they knew there were actually TWO people behind me. I also was super glad there was a house along the way that was under construction and had a porta potty handy!

Overall the race was well run and it was fun to have the band kids on the course. I live in a pretty hilly neighborhood, but the hills definitely made me walk more then I planned. In the end, I finished in 1:20:49, a 2.5 minute PR.

October - the BIG one!

I am running a half marathon. What was I thinking??? 13.1 miles?? The best thing about this race was my support. My long distance running buddy was in town from Ohio. She was training for a marathon, so this little run was just a training run with a medal at the end. (she was very gracious about this!)

I also had a TON of family support. My parents planned their trip East for Columbus day weekend, so they could have another day that the kids weren't in school. My Dad is a marathoner, having run both the LA and Long Beach Marathons. This was slightly nerve racking for me, as he RUNS marathons and I cover distances. :) Anyways, their trip happened to fall on the same weekend as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half.

I had also given my Husband fair warning that this race was the one race he had to show up for. I wasn't sure how that was all going to go as now he had not just the kids, but my parents as well. Needless to say, he hit it out of the park, but more on that later. 

So the race is a point to point race from Mt. Vernon to National Harbor. You spend most of the time on the GW Parkway and then cross over the bridge, make a loop around the harbor and finally past the Awakening to the finish.

This was my first "big" race, in that it of course was the longest distance I had ever completed, but I also knew there was a cap at 3,000 runners. I hadn't really paid attention to the number of runners in the races I had done up to this, but I fully expected a big expo and all the trimmings. I had been getting emails indicating I hadn't completed my registration and had been communicating with the Race Director. He assured me everything was fine, but in the end I didn't have a preprinted bib - Boo.  As for the expo, there were only about 5-6 vendors there. I bought a cute water bottle with a handstrap that has come in handy.

The weather report wasn't doing my nerves any favors. Could be a downpour, could be just wet.  Got to love DC, never know what you are going to get. Of course, with all my good weather at the races up to this point, I would have traded for this day in a hot second! We lucked out in that it drizzled, but never all out rained - or maybe it did and I just never noticed! It did cause me to grab a hat last minute.

Laura's husband, who is also a runner, took pity on us and drove us to the starting point. Because it is a point to point race, and there isn't any parking at the start, you could park in Alexandria or at the National Harbor and take a bus. We were dropped off right at the start! I had purchased a throw away sweatshirt at the good will, but ended up having more then enough time to check it (and my throw away ponchos again!). It was dark!

The race was smaller then I thought in that I could see the start line. They started the blind runners and their partners off (so cool!) and then we were off. Laura had moved ahead before the startThe Parkway isn't very easy to spectate from, so I didn't plan to see my family until Mile 7. We had tons of space to run our own race without having to jostle each other.

I kept thinking I had to use the porta potty, but each time I was at a stop, the line made me want to keep pushing on. I was too worried about my time. The race had a cutoff at 3:16, and I had a stretch goal of finishing in under 3 hours. My A goal was to finish and be with the race cutoff. I was running/walking at a good pace and was feeling great when I saw the first glimpse of my family. (Hey I was over halfway done at that point!) Rob said later, I was right on my predicted time that I had laid out on the map I gave him.

I had fallen in with a group of folks that were going the same pace and soon we were headed into Alexandria and over the bridge. There were 2 ladies that were particularly chatty and keep me heading forward. When we were on the bridge at mile 9, we all realized we had a chance to make the 3 hour mark. Boy was I excited and motivated then! The rain was coming down harder and we were on the pedestrian part of the bridge. (I realized my dreams of running over the actual road part of the bridge were just silly with the traffic in DC, but it would have been nice) and I was ticking off the states. First leaving VA, just a few minutes in DC and then into Maryland.

Past mile 10 and then I knew I was going to see my family again soon.

Then came the Hill. My friend from work, who ran the GW Birthday Run had warned me about this hill. I thought of him and kept moving. I knew I was going to walk this hill and just powered up it with my arms swinging. I had lost my ladies, but knew I had to keep going.

Then you enter basically the back of National Harbor, employee entrances and the like. A nice downhill and then this gravel area. I knew it had been a hated part of past races, but early on they had said they were going to change the route to eliminate it. Unfortunately, they did not.

After that we hit the "boardwalk" part that led up past the restaurants and then around what seemed like a thousand bends to the finish line. As I was coming up to the finish they were making announcements, so there wasn't even music to keep me going!

I finished! And it was under 3 hours!!! Elation!! Official time was 2:54:24.

We had some Mexican food at a local spot after changing into dry clothes and saying good bye to Laura. I even got to wear my medal most of the meal!

September - more fun with friends

My running friend had come back to town to run the Navy 5 miler. I rallied some folks from the hood and we made a small group of it. This was my last race before the big half marathon. I was feeling good about my preparations and we headed downtown as a group.

At this race I met some folks from a bootcamp that meets just around the corner from my house. My friend Irma has been with them for a long time and I loved getting to know some of the girls.

This race started at the Washington Monument and was a beautiful loop with lovely views of Alexandria. I ran quite of the race and felt strong in this race. I still finished last (in my group), of course, but that isn't why I am running.

Lovely weather and fun day! I love that running has begun to put a smile on my face!

I finished the 5 miler in 1:03:37.

August - Where have all the races gone?

Since this is my first year racing, I didn't really understand the cycle of racing in DC. Just like Congress and the rest of the population, apparently there isn't much around in August. My family and I took a trip of a lifetime to Alaska the beginning of the month. I seriously considered finding a race there to run, as I was sure the lower temperatures would be easier to run. My weather streak had held all year do far, but at some point the fates had to step in right? In the end I am glad I didn't try to squeeze a race in during our trip. So that left 2 weekends in which to find a local race.

OMG could my thighs jiggle anymore??

I ended up running the Leesburg 5k. I was signed up for the 20k looking towards my half marathon in October. The finishing time requirement concerned me and I was exchanging emails with the race staff up to the evening before the race. In the end, I decided not to push it and dropped back to the 5k. After the race results came out and I realized they had kept the course open quite a bit longer then advertised, I was a little mad. Another interesting tidbit about this race was that I had a HUGE PR. I sliced 3 minutes off my time to 37:00. I have to be honest, I am a little concerned about the race course and if it was truly 3.1. The race was hosted by a local racing store and seemed to be well established, although it has been a 10k/20k combo in the past.

Although I race this race by myself - since I was driven by the calendar and everyone else is smarter then to sign up for an August race - I ran into a good friend at the end of the course. She has also been working on becoming a runner and it was so much fun to catch up.

July - Time to Celebrate

July was the month I finally accomplished what I had been working for. I ran the 4th of July 5k without walking. I was so completely on cloud 9 by the end. I texted my running buddy, who had moved to Deleware at this point, before I even posted on FB!

I should note that I have been updating everyone on my friend list with my race postings and pictures. I have to thank my friends for continuing to read and take the 1 second to click the like button. It really helped me to have the support from across the country.

June - all for Dad

My June race was back to a local race run by one of the racing stores. My friend Lorna was running it, so we had a good time. We ran with each other, sometimes one ahead, sometimes the other and that made it fun. The race was to support prostate cancer research and promote education, so there were some fun signs.

We also ran with ties and at one turnoff you had to tie a tie on and run the rest of the race with it. We received a mug for our trouble, but it was just a fun diversion. This was a new course for me, and I felt good.

However, the pictures just show why running in tights are my friends. Yikes, I clearly have a long way to go on the thighs.

Nothing super special about this race, just get it done. I finished the 4 miles in 49:52.

New Years Day 5k

Kicked off my first goal (12 races in 12 months) with a race on Jan 1st. I am so lucky, because when I made my goal I figured if I can get through the cold months, then the rest of the running season won't be so bad. Well today was a treat! It was in the high 40's by the time we started racing and I need to take off my fleece part way through.
I clearly can't pace myself as I thought I was doing very poorly, but when I came around the bend in the town center, I could see the finish line clock and it said 36 something. I still had a half mile to go, but knew I could do that in 8 minutes or so! I ended up at 40:44. Not my best time (that was in March, 2010) but still good considering I haven't raced in 18 months.
A very good way to start the year. I also took a short walk around the neighborhood to get out, as the temperature is supposed to drop 15-20 degrees in the next day and a half. Boo! I was loving this October weather we have been enjoying. Maybe the winter will be mild and the Feb and March races won't be so bad either!