recap :: MoHud2013 week 9

...you know it's summer when...
you're scheduled for more than 1 race per week.

To preface: when I say "race" what I really mean is a run with 100+ people I may or may not know, while wearing a bib, maybe a timing chip and pretty much sticking to the same course. Clearly I'm not out to fight for a spot in Rio 2016.

Last week was a reminder of when I loathed running because it made my whole self hurt (thanks knees, calves, feet and the rest of my aging body). Thankfully I was signed up for two races so I used those for training runs and was actually excited to lace up.

Thursday was a 3.5mi race and Sunday was a fun 5k for a great cause. This was my third start for each of the races. Last year, these races started the season  and were two of the few races I actually got to do (note to self: do not sign up for your entire season of runs all at once in April or May - if you hurt yourself in, say, August, you're out a bunch of money).

Thursday was warm, windy, sunny and fabulous for running. I PRed the distance and the course over my previous two attempts. Sunday was freezing less nice, but it ended with a stop at my favorite food truck for an early morning slider, so it wasn't all bad. I PRed the course and took a minute of my time from last year.

There may or may not be a duathlon relay in my future for next weekend. Yikes.

Monday: 60min BCC (arms)
                scheduled - 30min walk
Tuesday: 60min spin w/ abs
                scheduled - rest
Wednesday: 60min BCC (lower body), 2mi
                scheduled - 2mi  
Thursday: 3.5mi
                scheduled - 3mi  
Friday: 60min BCC (cardio); 2.5mi (speed work)
                scheduled - 2.5mi  
Saturday: rest
                scheduled - rest  
Sunday: 3.1mi
                scheduled - 3mi

Weekly mileage: 11.4mi
Scheduled weekly mileage: 10.5mi

marathon weekend

Cue sad face. I wish I was sweating it out for 26.2 then propping my feet up on the ottoman dawning my compression socks, but alas. I was volunteering and wearing my ankle brace.

not quite compression socks [source]

Although I planned to be attending the event as a struggling runner, not a volunteer, it was still a fabulous and fun.

My co-volunteer and I made top hats and signs. The top hats were a big hit. We received numerous compliments from runners and there were a lot of smiling faces - you can't be anything but gleeful when you see someone wearing a top hat adorned with glitter paint.

I booked our hotel for my next attempt. Now I'm crossing my fingers and anxiously awaiting medical clearance.

six days til m-day.

I thought my week out post would be a gleeful overview of all the pasta I planned to enjoy within the next six days. However, consuming massive amounts of pasta and not running doesn't quite have the effect I intended. So I'll only be eating pasta once this week, I won't be tapering, but I am lucky enough to experience the "no running" induced mania many of my running friends are sure to find this week.

Wheeliechair ride around Target, thanks Q!

I'm missing running so much I re-signed up for the marathon. Not to run, clearly, but as a volunteer and to cheer like a banshie for all those runners who cross my path (especially my fantastic cousin who is looking to BQ). I also recruited one of my favorite wheeliechair pushers to volunteer with me! In turn, she recruited me to participate in my first race since my bones began to crumble beneath me the incident. It's a trail 5k run in late October - seems ambitious, yes, only we're not running the 5k. We will be dressed up as zombies trying to capture flags from runners as the pass. I signed up to be a hunter - running for short distances at a time. Best part: when you arrive you get a zombie makeover. Win. This might even be more fun than running in the race.  


This week is the week I can hit the gym again. I'll be sporting my ankle brace with my running shorts and I'm only allowed to use the bikes or elliptical, but it's something.

race recap: boiling.

Runners weren’t the only ones who turned out for Boilermaker’12. Mr. Sun was there as well, gleaming in all his glory. Race time was 8am and it was 70 degrees with 87% humidity and no breeze. Awesome. Moving on to 10am, closer to the finish it made its way up to (77 still without a breeze). The numbers aren’t staggering and I’ve certainly experienced worse, but it was hot and disgusting. Thankfully there were nearly a million water stops, so one cup was for drinking, the other for wearing. By the end of the race it looked like I attempted to swim through a body of water in an ill fated short cut route.

just a few people at the start line [source]

Holy start line. It was just like any other start line…with 11,000+ people. Thankfully there was a great deal of porta-potties, but I still endured a 20 minute line (bonus: the “bathrooms” were clean! Win!). Once that nonsense was out of the way, runBFF and I moseyed to the start. We were assigned births by bib color and didn’t qualify to toe the line with the elite runners, so we navigated the crowd of gold bibs (the last color to start…) and made our way to a solid middle starting point. Having never experienced the race before, I thought the crowd seemed really nervous. In addition to the typical warm up runners (by the way, you have 9.3 miles to go… use mile 1 as your warm up you overachievers), there was actually a guy in the grass near the pack of people doing pushups and burpees (clearly he’s out of my league). Once the gun went off we stood still and waited. And waited some more. At one point the announcer said “just over 4 minutes in and they’ve completed mile one” – if hearing that doesn’t set you up for success, I don’t know what will.

Ten minutes after the gun went off and we finally crossed the line, I hit start on my Garmin and tried to focus less on staring at my feet and more on my surroundings. At the mile marker for .1 a lovely crowd of people assured us that the next 9.2 miles would lead to free beer; thanks. Right after mile 1 runBFF spotted a lone porta-potty dropped from the heavens and stepped aside. I vowed to stay to the right and I walked through most water/ice stops but we never caught back up with each other. I instantly regretted not bringing my iPod, but the crowd collectively said “don’t worry, we’ve got you covered” and threw a barrage of wildly entertainment my way. Some favorites:

• Middle aged belly dancers (yep)
• A donkey (I guess there were other zoo animals around too, but I only saw the donkey)
• The International Mile
• Bagpipes (I LOVE bagpipes)
• Cheerleaders
• The Zebra Ice Pack (ladies dressed in sassy zebra print while handing out ice)
• The guys that sang the bowling ball song (it goes like this “clean your balls, we’re going bowling")

Miles 1-5 ticked away a little too easily. It felt like a training run (but really hot) with a ton of water stops and families handing out freeze pops (my excitement couldn’t even be contained). And then a quarter through mile 6 I started complaining, took a walk break, took another walk break and was acting like a baby. I sucked it up and started mile seven as if I was actually in a race and not just out for a Sunday stroll. All said and done, I PR’ed my previous 15k time by more than 9 minutes (but less than 10…remember when I was walking in mile six? Yep. Me too.), so I was happy.

pint glasses always fit. race t-shirts? not so much.

Once I stopped having a panic attack about how I was going to find R in a sea of 20,000 people, I walked around the finish for a bit and eventually we bumped into each other. Luckily he was at the finish cheering for me (not that I saw him because I was intently focused on watching my feet at that point… the “look up” approach I started with in the beginning faded. After I traded my sneakers for flip flops to relieve a massive blister, we followed the crowd to the brewery where seemingly all of Utica was standing. We got water, beer, freeze pops and of course, the coveted goody bag containing super sweet pint glasses. After about half an hour, we were tired and hot, plus sweaty runners kept grazing R and I got beer spilled on my foot, so we called it quits on the post race party and walked to the car.

The early morning was worth it. The race was fantastic. The course was wonderfully challenging and anything involving freeze pops is a success in my book. I’ll be back next year and I’m vowing to sprint mile 6.

More awesome things at Boilermaker:

fly over view of one crowded post race party [source]

• The wheelchair race
• Sharing a course with elite runners (albeit nearly an hour after they went through)
• The winning male time was 43:01; female was 49:26
• The volunteers (more than 5,000 of them)
• Popsicles at mile 4.75
• Post race party
• High five from Senetor Chuck Schumer at the end
• Water stops galore
• The 14 people that ran the Boilermaker every single year since the beginning

destination: race.

Sunday I will be waking up a bit (two and a half hours) earlier than long run Sunday calls for to road trip it to Utica to participate in the 15K road race with 13,999 other people. Of those 13,999 others, many are elite runners from all over the globe (I’m pretty confident with all this speed work I’ll be right up there with the pack, so look for me in the finish line photos). Finishing a portion of the same route before I do will be 4,000 5K participants. This race has been on my list for a while, so I’m glad I was paying attention and signed up before the race quickly sold out (there was still snow on the ground when registration closed).

With 18,000 runners invading the city, throw in spectators, fans, friends and family – I personally apologize to the local residents for my part in turning their city upside down for the weekend. I’m thinking minus the detours, road blocks, ridiculous parking situations and people trampling their lawns, they enjoy it. I’ve been  told residents literally line every street of the 9.3mile course to cheer on the weary and tired (and with a forecasted temp of 84ᵒ there will be many) and pass out freeze pops (!!!) to those who want to pause for a treat (this had BETTER be true or I will be one unhappy camper) before heading to the massive post race party (who doesn’t love a post race party?) at The Matt Brewing Company (who doesn’t love a post race party at a brewery?). Oh. And instead of race t-shirts they give out pint glasses so you can enjoy all the brewery has to offer. Also promised is music, family fun events, recovery tents, an F-16 jet flyover, vendors and a lot of goodies. Although I’m pretty sure no one is heading to the Boilermaker specifically for their amazing recovery tents…

And now, a few key Boilermaker med tips:

• “No alcohol the night before the race.” - read: save yourself for the post race party.
• “Heat and humidity are your enemies. The higher they get, the slower you should run.” – Not true. Not if you’re Kenyan. For specific examples, please see the 2012 Boston Marathon results.

r & r

I knew that the 20+ week training plan would be foiled at some point and last week was that week. Life interfered with my training plan and I had a bit of a break. I just assumed I’d be sidelined for a while because I sprained my ankle while stretching or something (it happened before… yoga circa 2002). And so there I was with a nine day hiatus from pounding pavement.

As luxurious as my mini-break sounds, I was bummed because my scheduled long run was in the double digits, the first time this training plan. When I finally mustered up the energy to lace up my kicks it was for a local 5K with 549 participants and the route lined with spectators. No pressure.  Much to my surprise, my legs felt great and I was able to keep up reasonably well. The first mile was annoying, but once I stopped whining about it in my head worked my way around the crowd and was able to settle into a comfortable pace it was great. I ended up finishing 21 seconds over my 5K PR.

And now the best part:  a peanut butter and jelly (or as my Gram would call it, "peanut butter and jel") sandwich station. Yep. After the finish a table of snacks greeted you. You could find the usual suspects; water, bananas, oranges, granola bars (gross)…but beyond the monotony of typical post race snacks was the best idea ever. A table with a few kinds of bread (sliced in half), various peanut butters, an impressive array of jellies and jams in multiple flavors and a whole lot of plastic knifes – genius! Why doesn’t every race offer this?? Regardless of time, it’s clear we were all winners at the snack stand.

source

...and so it began

source

As a child I have vivid memories of the dreaded physical fitness test in gym class (yes, they still have this). Each year was the same, the pushups and sit ups went fine, I excelled at the v-sit, the shuttle run was my favorite and I could even dangle on the pull up bar for a while. As the class gleefully made it through one circuit after another, our excitement was short lived as we all knew what was coming: the timed mile. As soon as the words escaped the gym teacher’s mouth I was plotting, scamming and scheming in my mind trying to figure out any way to be absent next class. I would have rather been anywhere than that track engaging in my “pre race” ritual of lacing up my sneaker and slouching my neon socks perfectly over my stirrup pants. 

Clearly I survived the torment of the gym as a child and today, I am training for my first marathon. I got over the dreaded timed mile somewhere in college when I would catch myself setting out for a jog around finals week or before a beach vacation. I would even get a few trail runs in during August where you could find relief from the heat under the dense pine trees of the park.

2010 Team Teagan volunteers

When my friend and co-worker began training for a half marathon with Team in Training, I noticed. I guess it never occurred to me that you could be running for a purpose or for fun. Listening to her talk about group runs, getting in hill and speed work and finding a new hobby was inspiring. Because she's awesome and is an overachiever, she took up the extremely ambitious task of appointing herself race director in an effort to help a local family with an ailing child. Team Teagan’s Annual 5K Benefit Run was born. 

On June 30^th, 2007 I completed my first 5K in support of Teagan, her family and the noble efforts of my fabulous friend. From that point on, I was hooked. Watching more experienced runners toe the line in their race day duds and snazzy sneakers would have been reason enough for me to jump on the bandwagon, but the support of the community and fabulous volunteers rallying around one family was amazing– I figured those crazy running people must have been a bunch of good eggs. I've continued to run in and volunteer at the race each year and they've proven me right.