With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

I got a late start, but didn't have to wait for my garmin to catch the sattelites because (thanks to Carolyn) I have it sitting in the window getting warmed up while I get dressed in the morning. 

3 easy miles: 9:48, 8:50, 8:27 (this was more like moderate) 

51.1^o, 89% humidity

Stretches, strength training/physical therapy

5 days left till the race.  Woo Hoo!!

I thought 4 miles would be okay for today.  It's the same I did last Tuesday, but it's still low enough miles that it's not going to ruin my taper. (At least that's what I think).

I ran easy/moderate.  Slow start with 9:55, then 9:05, then 8:50, then 8:40 (approx paces).  I wasn't trying to speed up, it just seemed like as I warmed up, the pace increased.

46^o ,   93% humidity    good weather.  the sun was lighting up the sky as I was heading home, around 5:50.  So I guess the sun is coming up around then.  It made a pretty morning sunrise color in the sky...kind of all the colors of the rainbow rising up from the tree tops.  I didn't need much from my headlamp today though, because the moon was sooo big and bright this morning.  It lit up the night.  Pretty cool morning to be out running and get to see all the beautiful stuff that people miss when they stay inside.

Physical therapy/strength training after.  I couldn't do my glutes the way I usually do on the ball because my back was sore.  I think it's just from sleeping wrong.  Nothing big, I'm sure it'll be gone tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is my last tempo day.  Yee-haw!  It's only 5 miles, with 3 tempo, so it's going to be a piece of cake.  The tempo is 8:55, so I'm not even going to worry about it.  I'm liking the taper week!

I found a wonderful little deli type store in town that sells fresh made tabouleh (?spelling?).  It is wonderful!!  I'm treating myself to some of it this week.  It's full of great carbs :-)  Yum, Yum.

4 1/2 days left till the race!!!  Woo Hoo!

update: ran .75 on bleachers then .3 around the track for another mile after work.  Walked & stretched to cool down.

I woke up to run and checked my workout log to make sure I had my miles/times right for the tempo run I was going to do.  I saw that this week, they've changed the tempo run to Thursday. 

So I did some quick thinking and decided I would go back to sleep and do some elliptical.  I've read it's important to get plenty of sleep the week before a long race, so I thought I could get more rest, and do some moderate elliptical.  I did bleachers yesterday and figured it wouldn't hurt my legs to rest a little more.

I did 25 min on the elliptical, then all of my physical therapy stuff.  I thought that would be enough, but I feel sluggish (like I haven't done a workout at all).  Maybe I'll do my tempo run tonight after school...I don't know.  I just feel like I didn't do enough...is this normal for taper week? 

This morning couldn't come fast enough.  Since I wasn't supposed to run yesterday, it's all I could think about doing.  It was such a release to get going today.  I enjoyed all of it!

Tempo run 5 miles total.  3 miles tempo in between warm ups & cool downs.

start 48^o end 46^o  86% humidity.  Beautiful, clear skies again.  I took my headlamp & hat off at the end so I could enjoy the night/early morning sky.

I did my tempos a little faster than they'd suggested, but I think it's okay, because on average, I'm always running faster than their suggested pace.  I wasn't ever really pushing hard, I was just running faster..if that makes sense.

paces were: 9:55, 8:30, 8:10, 7:55, 9:15 (I'm rounding.... I can't remember exactly what they were, but I know they're about this pace).   I walked .5 mile home to finish the loop.  Any other day I would have run, but I'm really wanting to do this taper thing right.

I didn't get my physical therapy done this morning, it'll have to wait till tonight.  I guess I'm skipping bleachers after school today.  It's going to be beautiful, but I know I need to rest, and I want to get dinner ready early so I can make it to the big craft show in town.  It runs today-Sunday, so this will be my only day to make it. 

I'm excited to go to the craft fair because I saw they've got a crickle booth.  I've wanted to try it ever since I saw it on Food Network.  YUM!  And speaking of food, I bought a giant sized bag of chocolate puffs with marshmallows for breakfast next week.  No oatmeal for me.  I've been eating oatmeal 6 days a week since mid-August.  I'm ready for the treats!!!

72 hours from now, I'll be running somewhere along the race route!! 

I was excited to run this morning.  I was looking at my training calendar, and I'm all the way at the bottom.  Only one thing left....the big run.  So this was my last "training" day. 

The run was easy, I tried to keep my pace over 9mm.  I think my first mile was around 9:45 and the second was around 9:15. 

I went to the craft festival last night.  Lots of booths were selling things with polka dots and big monograms.  That must be the craft thing of the season.  I got to try some crickle.  It's kind of like peanut brittle, but it's not as hard.  The brittle part is crunchy, but it's more of a flaky kind of crunchy, like a butterfinger.  It was good, but it wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be. Of course I bought some, because maybe it'll grow on me.

It was hard not eat all of the different things they had to taste test there, but I knew I didn't need the fat/calories from that stuff (dips, cakes, chips, fudge, funnel cake!).  I was a little worried about the germs too.  I thought, what if someone double dipped?  Or what if that dip hasn't been kept at a cool temp long enough?  I didn't want to get sick from it.  I feel like I'm little OCD lately about not getting sick from people around me.  I've trained too much to give it all up for some rhino-virus or flu bug.

Less than 48 hours left! 

10 1/2 hours till race time....  I need to get to bed!!!

Well, that's finally over.  It was exciting and fun.  The awesome factor wore off around mile 20 when my legs got sore and it was hard to keep my pace.

That's when I started pulling up all the good energy people had been sending me.  Thank you to everyone who was so supportive. 

Beautiful sunshine.  Perfect temps almost the whole way.  It warmed up toward the end, but that's to be expected around noon.

Already thinking about trying it again sometime.  But for now, I'm just going to work on walking :-) 

UPDATE:  Here's a little more info about the race and how things went for me.  I'm sorry if it drags on...I've read some of the other race reports on the blog, and there's no way this will be as well put together or eloquent...it's just going to be my ramblings

We parked maybe 1/2 a mile from the start.  We'd driven most of the first 13 miles the day before, and were excited to be there for the run.  Terri and I followed the same training program (with our own adjustments)...she did hers in MD and I did mine in NC.  So we were together again for our first marathon.  It was fun and exicting as we walked to the start line.  We were making up songs to tunes that popped up in our mind.  

"It's a beautiful day for a marathon, a beautiful day for a marathon, won't you run with me?  Won't you please?  Please, won't you please, run the marathon with me?"    and "Rise, and shine, and we're gonna run today, rise, and shine, and we're gonna run today, Rise and shine and, we're gonna run today, all 26.2 miles."

I think the nervous energy was making us a little giddy/silly.  It's good we weren't being too self conscious.  We were both wearing striped pirate bandana hats with Mickey Mouse ears sticking out the top.  At first we didn't see anyone else dressed up like a pirate.  That was a little awkward.  After hanging around the start line for a while, we saw a few stray pirates here and there...and one guy dressed up in an elf hat.  Still not sure about that one.

We made it out of the port-a-potty just in time to stand for the national anthem.  I was glad I didn't have to choose between the potty and being patriotic.  There were really long lines, and the race was fixin' to start.

We found our corral, and were in the 3rd group to take off.  It was so exciting.  I started choking up a little, but swallowed hard.  I didn't need a headache from crying at the start of the race!  My emotions were just overwhelming.  I was finally there.  All of my focus for the last 3 months was for this moment (and the next 4 1/2 hrs of moments to come).  Awesome feeling.  My heart still swells thinking back on the emotions I was feeling.

We started out at a slow, warm up mile pace. 9:58 for the first mile.  I was happy with it.  My garmin was beeping to speed up, but I knew we'd be getting on our pace track soon, so I just let it beep.  We had discussed the day before what we wanted to have for our pace goal, and what we wanted to set our garmins at for pace indicators.  I had successfully run a 9:30 average 24 mile training run 3 weeks earlier.  It was on a super flat course.  I felt like I wanted to stay with that 9:30 pace.   Terri expressed that she wanted to run a 9:20 pace because that's what the training program had said we could run.  I wasn't feeling confident that I could do a 9:20 pace, but I was willing to try.

We set our watches to beep if we went over 9:00 or under 9:45.  After the first mile, the next 8 miles were pretty flat, but really winding.  We picked up an extra .25 miles somewhere in all of those turns in the first 4 miles.  Not using our tangents correctly, I guess.  That's how I ended up with 26.47 miles.

Miles 2-9, we started out at the pace I was comfortable with, but just got slower and slower.  I found that I had to hold back a lot, and I figured that was good, because I didn't want to burn out later.  But we were over our target time, over my goal pace time, and we kept getting slower.  I was getting really tired of hearing the garmin beep at me.  Paces for those miles were (9:32, 9:34, 9:36, 9:37, 9:45, 9:41, 9:45, 9:51).  The folks who lived along the path were great.  They were out cheering us on, and had water out for us if we needed it.  It was so beautiful and fun.  One group even had a couple different beers they were handing out if anyone wanted...it made me laugh.  Some other house was giving out tomato juice...I didn't see the vodka with it, but I wondered if they were passing out bloody mary's.  What a hoot.  The inlet of water between Kill Devil Hills and Manteo was just beyond the houses to our right as we were running down the island.  It was beautiful to see the water, and the plants that were growing on the shore.  At one point, we ran through a huge field of the wild oat grass and reeds that grew there.  It was picture perfect.  The golden plants were at least 6 feet tall, and they were blowing in the wind.  We could catch glimpses of the water occasionally through them.  It was beautiful.  At mile 8, we ran around the Wright Brother's Monument.  It sits atop a big hill.  Luckily, we just ran the perimeter of the hill.  I took a picture of Terri on my cell phone to send to her hubby who wasn't able to be there.  Then she took one of me, and a fellow runner saw what we were doing.  He offered to take one of us together.  How fun! 

Miles 10-13 were in the woods.  The first 2.5 were on packed dirt road with some pretty sandy spots along the way.  It was full of hills too.  I wasn't expecting that.  I found that I was trying to run faster to keep the garmin from beeping at me, because I really wanted to make my goal pace.  I would look back, and Terri was behind me, so I'd stop and run in place till she caught up with me.  This happened the entire 2.5 miles on the dirt path.  I think we were both frustrated.  She was doing what she could, and I wanted to do what I could, but I didn't want to leave her behind.  We've always stuck together for races.  It was a huge conflict for me whether I should go on ahead or not.   Our miles were (9:53, 10:21, 10:05, 10:35).  When we finished mile 12, and I told her that we'd run it in 10:05, she said that she was going to stick to that pace for the rest of the race.  She suggested I go on and run what I could, and she'd turn her ipod on and see me at the end.  I spent a few minutes thinking about it and debating what I should do...there wasn't an easy answer.  Finally, at mile 12.5, the trail turned into a narrow path that went up the side of hill.  It was all just thick, soft mulch.  That was a bugger!  The longest 1/2 mile of the race.  It slowed me down too.  But I was moving on ahead, and I didn't see Terri after the 13 mile mark.

After mile 13, it was the familliar 1/2 marathon route that I'd run last year.  It wasn't as fun running by myself, but I did feel like it was good that I had a chance to run with/for myself.  I kind of came to the conclusion that running a marathon is a huge person struggle, especially at the end when you're tired and have to find that extra strength somewhere inside.  People have told me that running a marathon is a really spiritual experience.  I can see that now, and I think it was okay that I did it by myself.  I learned a lot about myself in those last 4 1/2 miles.

I enjoyed the running into the neighborhoods and the cheering crowds.  I took another pix of myself as I ran past the sand dunes.  It's not easy to take pix on a cell phone while you're running.  I'm glad I did it though.  That was around mile 15.  I sent the pix to my sister and to my friend Cori.  My sister was in church & couldn't reply, but Cori did, and gave me some encouragement.  It was great to have my phone to get the extra support.  Around mile 20, I wasn't able to text and run at the same time.  My fingers weren't working very well, so I had to put the phone away.  The race was getting rough, and the bridge was still ahead.

I grabbed gu at each of the 4 gu stations they had.  I'd brought enough with me, but I thought, hey, they're $1.20 each, so I'll get some free gu! (I think it was actually hammer gel).  I'd started putting their gu in my pockets with my gu, and the weight was pulling my skirt down.  So I put my gloves in my running bra in the front pocket, and tried to sandwich the gu in between them so they didn't rub my skin off.  It didn't work perfectly, and I've got some wicked raw sores on my sternum now.  But I've got my $4.80 worth of free gu! 

Miles 14-21 paces were (9:39, 9:31, 9:43, 9:27, 9:38, 9:26, 9:31, 9:48).  I was happy with those times; that's just where I wanted to be.  I could tell around mile 21 I was getting tired.  My legs started getting heavy and I could feel the pain creeping up in them.  I was glad that I'd run on sore legs before.  I was glad that RAD had told me that I should be prepared to run on sore legs.  That way, I knew what was going on, and I knew I could just push on and keep going. I was grateful for my training and for the advice of my mentors.

Mile 22 was going up the bridge.  I was in the mode to just keep moving, and I didn't really seem to have much control over my speed.  It was going to be what it was going to be.  I was trying so hard to just keep running up that hill.  The 4:15 pace group passed me going up the bridge.  I wanted so badly to be able to keep up with them, but after 30 seconds of trying, I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with them, and I was okay with that.  I knew I was doing my best, and the disappointment didn't last long.  After the bridge, it was pretty flat through town to the finish line.  I was obviously running slower.  I can't believe how slow my mile 26 was.  I didn't feel like my effort was a 10:50, but that's all I got for my effort.  I tried sprinting the last .2 miles.  I did increase my pace, but it wasn't a land speed record.  I was glad I was able to run a little faster though.   

Paces for 22-26.2 were (9:53, 10:10, 10:13, 10:11, 10:50, 9.16-for the .2)

I crossed the finish line, and I was so happy that I finished in 4:20.  It worked out to just under a 10 mm pace.  Mike was at the finish line to cheer for me - he'd just run the 1/2 and finished it in 2:05.  I walked for a while at the end, and was thrilled that I didn't have any horrid leg cramps.  All hail to Carolyn and her great suggestion for chicken noodle soup!

We waited in the corral for Terri.  She finished in 4:44.  I let her run in and then I hugged her.  It was so wonderful to be there with her when she finished.  We'd done it.  It was amazing.  It was great.  For those few moments there in the corral, we'd conquered the world.

I can't wait to do it again....

getting out of bed today was a workout

I'll be using my upper body strength today to pull/push myself in and out of chairs.

I managed to get some shoes on my feet and went out for a short walk this morning.  It was a tough start.  Every step was such an effort.  But I knew it would help.  I was walking more comfortably about half way through. 

I just want to sit all day, but I know I need to drink a lot and keep moving.  It's the epic struggle of doing what I know is right and good for my body vs doing what feels good right now.  Obviously, I'm sitting at a computer right now and not moving around, so you can see how well that's going.

I'll be ready for another walk tonight. 

I got an email, and a friend of mine that I haven't seen in almost 2 years said she might be coming down my way for the 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks.  I'd love to run it with her (just running slowly...no pr's).  Will it be too soon?

I laid out my running stuff last night thinking that maybe I'd be able to try to jog a little this morning.  But laying in bed all night made me super stiff again.  I took the easier route and clamored up on the elliptical for a 20 minute workout.  Started out slow, but but 17 minutes, I actually felt good. It's 3 hours later now, and I can feel the soreness coming back. 

I think that's the encouragement I need to get out there and work my muscles a little more to help them feel better.   Maybe I'll try the easy jog tomorrow.

I bought that huge bag of chocolate cereal for breakfast to eat when I'd finished the race, and it's so uappealing in the morning, I haven't been able to eat it for breakfast yet.  I actually thought about making my oatmeal again this morning.  I went for a pb&j bagel instead. 

Holiday day off.  Slept in and ran errands all day.

Great to be back on the road in the morning.

My legs were tired, it was raining, it was cold, and the wind was blowing.  But I loved every minute of it. 

paces were 10:00, 9:14, 9:11(for the last 1/2).  I had the watch set to alert me if I went over a 9mm.  I was surprised when it went off.  I didn't think I'd be running that fast.  It was a moderate effort.  But getting up off the chair is a moderate effort these days.

I think I'll do a few short miles again tomorrow, and try a longer run on Saturday at a slower pace.

3 easier miles than yesterday.  I just want to take the recovery easy so I'm able to heal and not get injured.  But I'm glad I can do it with some easy runs.  I'm hoping to get a longer easy run in tomorrow.

paces were 10:30-9:30.  Misty rain, windy.  Just right :-)

On an awesome note...last night I got to listen to Billy Mills give a speech.  I was able to meet him and get his autograph & get my photo taken with him after.  He was/is so inspirational.  He was recently listed in the Runner's World magazine as "The best underdog story of all time."  He won the 10K in Tokyo's 1964 Olympics.  His win is on youtube, and it's amazing to watch. 

Bad night.  Up at 2 worried about the dumb things 16 year old boys can do.  Couldn't go back to sleep, so by 4:30, I was out running.  I got in 6 miles total.  The last .5 I needed to slow down a little and I thought I pushed the lap button on my watch, but pushed the stop button instead.  So I'm not sure what the pace was on the last 1/2.

The weather was nice and cool.  Running helped get some of the stress out. 

Emotional exhaustion is harder to work through than physical.  And there's no "finish line" or "medal" at the end.  Just another problem to deal with.

 paces were:

9:35, 9:07, 8:59, 8:51, 9:01, 9:00 (first .5- not sure on second)

2 mile walk to get out of the house and drag myself out of bed

Just an extra easy Monday run.  Having a little pain on the outer thigh of my right leg, and trying to not push that.  I guess I'm still supposed to be recovering too. 

The 1/2 is Saturday.  I think that as long as my thigh cooperates, I should be able to run it.  It will be a slow, easy, training run.  But I'll be among friends, and that will make it fun.

Super foggy this morning.  Paces were 9:57, 8:59, and 8:33 for the last .62.

47^o   96% humidity

Running felt great until mile 3.5, when the pain that was in my thigh yesterday started radiating up into my hip.

I tried stretching it out really well last night, and I stretched it again this morning. 

I think I might just not run more than a couple of miles a day for the rest of the week to let it get better.  That, and lots of stretching.  Or maybe I just shouldn't run at all...not sure what the best course of action is.  I really want to run the 1/2 this Saturday.

Average pace was 8:58 for the 4 miles.  Weather was in the high 40's.  The sky wasn't overcast, but there was a lot of foggy stuff down where I was, and I wasn't able to see any of the meteor show.  :-(

My hip felt sore when I went to bed, but it felt great when I woke up...so I decided to....not run.  It was hard to convince myself it was the right thing to do, but I really want to run on Saturday, so I am going to take some time off till then. 

I'll work on my physical therapy, which will only help to strengthen my core (which includes my hip).  I'll walk too.  But I'm just going to lay off the running and other hippy-type things.  I thought I'd try walking the bleachers yesterday, but the motion of going up was just aggrivating.  Down was fine, but it wasn't worth the pain.  So I did some walking and stretching instead.  It was good to get out with the other ladies and talk.

Is it irony that at the same time my child starts acting like the idiot of the year, I develop a huge pain in my rear?

Still taking it easy and waiting for Saturday to run.  My hip-thing feels like it's getting better. 

I went to see the dr about my bump on my ankle that hurts when I tie my shoe on it.  He said he thought it was tarsal tunnel syndrome.  Oh dear.  I'm not sure I think it's accurate.  He gave me a referral to a podiatrist, so I'm looking forward to seeing that dr for a diagnosis, and to talk about my other foot issues.

He told me to take extra strength naprosyn 2x a day for 10 days to see if that would help with the swelling.  I guess that's okay to do?  I figure it can't hurt my hip stuff either, so I'm game.  I just don't want to ruin my insides by taking lots of meds.

I plan on doing some walking after school, and my physical therapy.  I had to leave an hour early this morning because it was take your parent to middle-school day.  I'll be honest, I couldn't wait for it to be over, and to get back to work. 

The highlight was when I saw the entire language arts class reading a book called the 7 habits of effective teen-agers.  It was by a Covey (a son I assume).  I really loved what I read and what the students were being taught.  Kudos to the Coveys for bringing values back into people's lives.

I can hear the music playing..."another one bites the dust."

I'm letting my hip try and heal. I still feel it a little now and then. I don't think sitting on it all day helps at all. But what do I know?

Went to an early celebration breakfast after a early trip to walmart for a bunch of candy and some flowers.

Hopefully the run tomorrow will go well. I don't really know how my hip will feel, but I've certainly rested it the last 3 days. Hoping for the best. The weather forecast says 50's and no rain. It's going to be better than last year's 31 degrees.

Even on the car ride up to the run, I could feel a little something in my hip, and I just wasn't sure I'd be able to go the distance. 

We got there early, and signed up for the races, and got our long sleeved white t-shirts with the horrid bright green screen printing on them.  Wow....you'll see me coming when I wear that!

It was just a little chilly, but warm compared to last year. at 7:30 when we got there, it was 39^o.  By race time at 9 am, it was 48^o.  I took off my sweat shirt and sweat pants.  My skirt and 2 long sleeved techniical shirts were chili while waiting for the gun to go off, but I warmed up quickly, and the weather was great.  It was 53^o when we finished.  Humidity wasn't bad.  It started at 93% (7:30 am) and went down to 67% (11:15).

It was great to see Katie.  I hadn't seen her in almost 2 years.  We talked and talkedf or the whole 2 hours.  She's just finished her big marathon in California, and I'd just finished mine in the OBX, so we were both just running for the fun of it, and we both knew we needed to take it easy and go slow.  So there was NO pressure.  It was marvelous!

The hills were still there, but they just didn't seem as bad as last year.  And time flew by.  I was ready to stop running when we got to mile 13, but I wanted to keep going so we could talk more.  I was kind of sad when it was over. 

Mr ran the 10K with some ladies from my work.  They all ran in under 1 hour.  I think Mr. even broke his PR...and he'd been suffering from shin splints all week!  Everyone seemed really happy with their results, and seemed to have a good time. 

Panera afterwards was delicious!  Maybe it's a good thing Panera is over an hour away, or I'd be there every week-end!

We averaged 9:45-10:00 mm most of the run.  The last few miles, we walked more at the water stops, and Katie got her little water jugs filled up..so that added the extra time.  It was great to just stop and not worry about the clock.  The best stop we had was just around mile 7.  We ran across a bridge/road that went throught he middle of a lake, and while we were crossing it, we came across a couple of guys who were walking.  So we asked them to use my camera to take our pix.  They ended up taking a video clip instead, but it's still fun to see.

Great day, great run, great company, great food.  Doesn't get much better than that.

20 minutes on the elliptical, moderate intentisty.

I feel like I'm ready to get back out & run, I just need to make myself keep my pace slower for a few more days while I "recover."  Easier said than done.

5:20-6:00am....drizzly rain, not too cold- somewhere around 50^o

  Warm up was around 10:45, then the next three were all 9:50's.  Felt great to be out running in the morning again.  I'm even enjoying my oatmeal breakfasts again!

Got to sleep in a little today.  It was great.

Ran 6 easy.  started at a 10:40, then kept the miles around a 9:50.  There were 2 miles in the middle that ended up a 9:30.  I tried to go slow, but stay under a 10 mm. 

It was nice weather, and it was great to run 51^o and 95% humidity.

Happy Thanksgiving! I managed to walk around the block after dinner.

My afternoon race didn't materialize.

Too much food!

So much fun sleeping in and not going shopping.  Had a nice breakfast and then went out for a little easy run with Mr. while my daughter rode her bike with us.

avg pace 9:52   10:40, 9:46, 9:33, 9:35, 9:55, 9:41.   Nice weather, just a little windy.

Still sleeping in and enjoying it.  Mr. rode the bike today while I ran.

Beautiful weather.

avg ?..forgot to shut watch off while I was walking and doing yard work.

 9:56, 9:13, 9:36, 9:31, 9:39, 9:29, 9:16, 8:48  

I think I ran faster because I was trying to keep pace with the bike. 

Back at the early morning run.  I will say that my early runs don't seem to last as long as the ones I did when I slept in.  I wonder if it's because I'm still asleep and it's dark outside.

4:50-5:50 am   nice weather, clear skies.  Beautiful moon was setting as I went out.

Started a new "training program" for the Myrtle Beach Marathon.  I used smart coach on the runner's world magazine.  It has me running 3x a week and xtraining the other days.  I think I'll just run on the x-train days and see how it goes.  Maybe throw an elliptical in there now and then when the weather is horrid.

The marathon is on Feb 13th..so I've got just under 11 weeks.  I think I can do it.  I'm glad I've got some serious training to do to keep me motivated as it gets cold and as the holiday treats pile up. 

avg pace 9:24  - 10:28, 9:20, 9:13, 9:21, 9:10, 8:54, 8:43(pace for last .13).