The Hills of Howard County

Not sure where to begin with this race recap. This race was very important to me mentally. This was my first half marathon by myself and I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it. I wasn't sure if I would end up walking most of it or going at it half-hearted. So I charged up my shuffle and hoped for the best. Jon was amazing and woke up to come and cheer me on, to be honest I was thankful to have someone there to drive me home!!

It wasn't a wave start so I decided to move to the back of the pack so as not to be run over or start to fast. I will say that even more obnoxious then the joggler (the guy that runs while juggling) is the jogroper (a guy who runs while jump roping). More than one did I contemplate tripping him or grabbing the rope! The first few miles were ok, I kept telling myself to hold back I was only at the beginning.

Then halfway through mile 4 I hit THE hill! Whoever designed this course was either insane or completely masochistic. More then once I looked in front of me and just said "What fresh hell is this"? I was also very thankful to find a waterstop with powerade! This race was like running hills in the Amazon Rainforest! Yet, somehow around mile 8 I found some energy and got back to my intervals and kept it until about mile 12.5 where I began the final climb to the finish. Amazingly enough I actually finished in 2:59:01 which is only 10 minutes off from my half PR. So given the crazy hills I am just glad that I finished without collapsing. So race 1 towards my half fanatic status is complete. Now onto race 2 this weekend in Williamsburg!!

10 miler playlist

Ok so I knew I would be running alone and I needed to have an awesome playlist. So after much googling and some facebook suggestions I came up with the below playlist. Thought I would share since it is hard to find good running song suggestions!

Playlist!

Life Is a Highway 4:37 Rascal Flatts
I'll Make A Man Out Of You 3:22 Donny Osmond & Chorus
Go The Distance 3:14 Roger Bart
Ever Ever After 3:29 Carrie Underwood
Ready To Run 3:53 Dixie Chicks
Take Me Away 3:09 Christina Vidal
Don't Stop the Music 4:27 Rihanna
One Girl Revolution 3:15 Superchic (k)
Songs Like This 2:37 Carrie Underwood
Raise Your Glass (Glee Cast Version) 3:20 Glee Cast
We R Who We R 3:25 Ke$ha
Loser Like Me (Glee Cast Version) 3:19 Glee Cast
Tik Tok 3:20 Ke$ha
I Gotta Feeling 4:49 The Black Eyed Peas
Forget You 3:44 Cee Lo Green
Hey, Soul Sister (Glee Cast Version) 3:41 Glee Cast
It's My Life / Confessions, Pt. II (Glee Cast Version)
Waking Up In Vegas 3:19 Katy Perry
California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg) 3:55 Katy Perry
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) 4:04 C+C Music Factory
Naturally 3:23 Selena Gomez & The Scene
Only Girl (In the World) 3:55 Rihanna
Club Can't Handle Me (feat. David Guetta) 3:53 Flo Rida
Footloose 3:47 Kenny Loggins
Rockstar 2:59 Hannah Montana
Four Minutes 3:12 Madonna Ft Justin Timberlake
Minority 2:49 Green Day
Crazy Dreams 3:38 Carrie Underwood
Switch 3:19 Will Smith
Hands Down 3:07 Dashboard Confessional
Till the World Ends 3:58 Britney Spears
Fight for You (HumanJive Remix) 4:57 Ehda

Broad Street 10 miler...yep its flat!

Race recap time!

Broad Street 10 miler

I can say without a doubt this is one of the best races that I have run. All of the elements combine to make it friendly to every type of runner.

So this story actually starts last year at the MCM expo. Jon gets really annoyed but I have this ability to start talking to random people and at expos this is easier. So while walking through the expo I saw a booth that said Broad Street. I went up to the lady and asked her if it was Broad Street as in Broad Street Bullies, Philly Flyers? To which she said "yes, but no one in DC is a FLyers fan". After correcting her and chatting about the Flyers I filled out an entry to win a free entry into the race, and Jon filled one out too. Surprise, surprise we both got a free entry into the race!

Fast Forward 7 months and we are in Philly for the Broad Street 10 miler. We actually got a hotel near the stadium and since it was the 1st game of the Stanley Cup semi-finals we got tickets!! So after a quick trip to the packet pick-up and expo we headed to the Wells Fargo Center for the Flyers game. They lost but it was still fun!

So the next morning we drove across the street to the parking lot, got on the metro (which was free to runners) where we rode to the other end of the line for the start. We got there way to early but found ways to entertain ourselves. It was a wave start but I was in the last corral. It started at 8:30, my wave started at 9, it was a good wait! But we finally got started and it was a great race. Really hot, but it was totally flat! There is only 1 sort-of turn in the whole course.

So I found this Rita's guy while making the only turn by city hall. There was no line (which never happens in Disney) so I took advantage and stopped for a quick pic!. Jon never even saw him. I found this to be really mentally uplifting. This was the first race I had ever run by myself and by mile 6 I was really feeling the mental strain of having to push myself and do it alone! Seriously, it is a lot less fun by yourself! I pushed through and finished at the naval yard in 2:11:47, which was great for me! My only other 10 miler was 2:17:??.

One of the best things about this race is that afterwards, since you run back to your car, was that everyone tailgated the race. People had grills and pop-up tents it was awesome! I look forward to doing this race many more times. It was also the first year that they had a medal for the race. I really like it

Very sturdy and great image of city hall!

4 races 1 post!

Ok I feel bad because I was going to update this blog and be good about it. Use it as a motivator. However, as Jon pointed out last night I have a bit of an issue with follow through. In an effort to make good on the promise to myself here is a little on the races of April.

Starting off with the B&A Trail half marathon. Which was not in April but in March, 3/6/11 to be exact. It was supposed to be a rainy and cold run but it actually turned out to just be cloudy and drizzly. I ran this race with Megan and Katie and lets just say we had a good time! We decided that with the weather and the lack of any of us getting ready for the race we were not shooting for a super time. Just out to enjoy the run and the race. We learned that Megan is very bouncy on the walk portions of the run, that zombies can live in lots of holes along the B&A Trail, and that we all watch WAY too much reality TV. However, all of these things make for a super fun 13.1! We finished with a time of 3:15:47 which I think is a great time!

Next up we have the Cherry Pit 10 Miler. This run is an alternative to the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in DC on the same day. For a $5 entry you can’t beat it. However, this is by far the hilliest race I have EVER run, and I ran Baltimore last year. Baltimore has rolling hills; the Cherry Pit 10 miler has BIG hills. As one runner put it “someone’s diabolical idea of hitting as many big hills as possible and seeing who actually makes it through the course in its entirety” I started off strong. I was feeling good, my legs were working with me for once, and everything was great. I wish I had saved some energy, had I known what was coming. I was doing good until mile 7 and then I hit the BIG hill. That was about the time I quit, lol. However, even though I walked the big hill I still couldn’t give up. Katie and the GF were great company but I wanted to finish strong and the GF decided to hang back with Katie. So keeping with my 2:1 intervals I took off. I finished in 2:17:15 which is a 10 miler PR. Well it was my first 10 miler but I think it was a great time!!

Now onto the Women’s 5K by the Bay. This is the first 5K in the MD Women’s Distance Festival. This was my first 5K last year and I was determined to do well. Last year I did it in 36:36:00 and that was a great time for me. This year I was looking forward to a great race. My step-sister Stephanie and my cousin Katie decided to join me for this one. This year I did it in 36:38:00 pretty consistent but I was hoping for a better time. However, getting to run the first part of the race with Steph was great! Maybe next time I can keep up with her!

Last but not least is the surprise 10K last week Clyde’s 10K. Jen called me on Friday and said that Sean couldn’t run the race did I want to do it with her. So after a quit check of the weather I was in! I felt a little bad because Sean is faster than I am so I knew my time wouldn’t be as good but I promised I’d try hard. However, they did tell me it was not a big deal, but secretly I was pushing myself. Sooo with Jen’s amazing help (I’m noticing a trend with Jen’s trying to kill me on hills, lol) I finished that race up in an awesome 1:17:44. That is about 5 minutes off of my previous 10K PR. Follow up a great run with some great food and Clyde’s and it was a truly excellent day.

Ok so races all wrapped up! I’ve been reading some really good running books so I’ll post some reviews on those soon! I figure I should finish the books before posting thoughts. Ok, follow through for today complete time for a cupcake!!

ok so in an effort to try

So in an effort to try and a need to procrastinate from the presentation I'm writing for my class I figured I'd update.

So since tomorrow brings the scary day of registering for the Goofy Challenge I thought I would begin updating on the trials of a first marathon. Jon and I will be experimenting with training and nutrition to get ready for his first marathon (MCM) in Oct and mine in January (WDW). I'm going to need some motivator, besides starvation, to try things like GU. So we will start with review number 1.

Zipfizz!

Ok so we have been in search for an alternative to gatorade. And apparently this is what you can find when you decide to get pictures printed at Costco and you have 30 minutes to kill. Which means you start going through sample tables. As much as I love the free sausage, chips, and salad dressing they never have drinks. So when I found a table I stopped to sample. Come to find out there are 3 different flavors Pink Lemonade, Orange, and Grape. So far the Pink Lemonade is pretty tasty and the orange isn't to bad. But according to the nice lady it has more electrolytes then gatorade and the combo pack was a good price. It was $27 so for 30 packs that is about $.93 per thing, so totally cheaper. It also tastes better then the other flavor mixes out there. The others that I have tried all just make my water taste funky. I either want my water to taste good or just be water, but funky water just defeats the purpose of adding something to it.

So all in all it is pretty tasty. Not sure I would want it to replace gatorade just yet but right now I'm enjoying it for shorter and post runs!

Tuesday's choice

So Jon and I have made the choice to go big or go home. So one Tuesday I will be registering us for the Goofy Challenge and a half!! It will be my first marathon and well my first goofy. I'm excited about the challenge of 39.3!! I am someone who really works hard with a goal, so I am really looking forward to getting ready for it. I need a motivator. Last year it was to PR during the Baltimore half marathon. This year it is to get ready for Goofy, and hopefully the training will help me improve in the other areas of my running.

So Jon and I are looking forward to joining our friends for a fun 39.3 in 2012!! I'm just sad Jen won't be there to join me in my first marathon! But I think I will have a ton of support from my ROTE friends!!

Lots of firsts

So in the last month I got married and ran another half marathon.

Jon and I got married in Walt Disney World at the Wedding Pavilion on Feb 16! It was a truly magical event. All of our friends and family were there, including our running friends, which still surprises me! I say it surprises me because traveling to Fl for a wedding is a big deal and not at all cheap. I mean we had family that refused to come due to distance and price. So it meant a lot to both of us that with only a couple months notice all but 4 of our running friends came to the wedding.

We stayed in Disney for the week with the plan to fly back down the following weekend so that I could run the Princess half marathon and we could stay in the Treehouse. However, there was a crazy amount of drama at the airport and we ended up deciding not to go. I was disappointed to miss my first race but was glad to not deal with all the stress of the quick weekend. Instead we joined in with the Jen's for a 10 mile run on Sunday. Half way through this run I realized why fate didn't let me go down to Fl again. I was coughing and having such a hard time keeping up.

Thankfully, I had the week to rest up for the following weekend for the B&A Trail half marathon. I ran the B&A with Katie and Megan and it was a very enjoyable 13.1 miles. Lots of talks about trashy reality tv, zombie attacks, and a slew of other craziness. We ended up finishing in 3:15:00 which given the rain and everything was a really good time. So we enjoyed some hot pizza and rested up. Took care of Bob after his 4th marathon and then headed off to a yummy brunch.

And this week I have had the opportunity to see exactly why our group is so close. There is no runner left behind! I am proud to call the loopers my friends and now I am off to visit with 3 teenage boys and 4lbs of chili!!