next race?

It's only 3 days since my last half marathon and I'm already trying to find the next race. I tend to have an idea of what races I want to do then sign up based on how I'm feeling last minute. There are very few races I plan far enough in advance to save money. I know it's not the most cost efficient option but I have saved myself a few times when I ended up having to be somewhere else on race weekend.

Prior to the Akron 1/2 I was on Facebook (when am I not) and saw an ad for a Monster Dash in Chicago. Normally I don't pay too much attention to FB ads but this one caught my eye. I had never heard about this race. I clicked over and liked what I saw. Half marathon in downtown Chicago = easy travel. People dress up, there is sweet swag like fleece running jackets, hats, and a belt buckle medal! Heck for the kids run they get a fun light up monster t-shirt.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about running another 1/2 about 4 weeks later and the day before I leave on a 2 week vacation so I didn't sign up right away. After how good I felt last weekend I think I want to keep it going and see what I've got on a flat course. The course is a simple out and back on the lakeshore path starting downtown and heading south. I'm pretty sure there may be 1 hill and after Akron it's a joke of a hill. Running a race on Halloween has to be fun - right?!?!

So how do you choose your races? Do you sign up last minute or are you a super planner?

Akron 1/2 Marathon Race Report

The husband and I arrived at my sister and brother-in-laws house over 7 hours after leaving Chicago. The drive should really take no more than 6 hours but a section of the Indiana toll road was closed for awhile. Parked on a tollway with no information for about an hour = no fun at all. We made it, unpacked the car and then my sister and I headed to the expo so I could make a quick pick-up. Only it wasn't so quick because we arrived when everyone else did! Right when the pasta party was starting and everyone was getting off of work/arriving in town. It was a bit crowded to say the least. After making our way through (and 1 super cute shirt purchase) we all were on our way for dinner with my dad and stepmom.

Race morning started early! I couldn't sleep of course and when the alarm went off at 5:40 am it felt much earlier because of the short 1 hour time change for me. My sister the rock star of the weekend woke up a bit later and drove me to the race start. She dropped me off as close as she could get and I walked in the darkness with all the other runners arriving to find the bag drop vans. It took me a bit because they only had 2 vans and the huge sign wasn't exactly by where the vans were parked. I did see they had a support tent for everyone to use that had water, powerade, and a place to stay warm. Very nice touch that not every race has.

The morning temps were in the upper 50's but I was totally comfortable standing at the start line in my tank top and shorts. About 20 minutes later we were off!

Mile 1 (9:37): Ended up being my slowest mile. I didn't want to take off like a bat outta hell like I normally do bobbing and weaving. I hung back with the 3:50 pacer, tried to calm my nerves and find my happy race pace. I knew I was slower than I wanted then there was a bottleneck going over a bridge that slowed me even more. I'm happy I didn't waste too much energy this first mile but wish it could have been slightly faster.

Miles 2-5 (8:51,8:42, 8:39, 8:37): Even with a couple significant uphills these miles flew by! Everything was feeling good and I was enjoying the morning.

Mile 6 - 7 (8:40, 8:59): I took my first GU chomps because I forgot earlier. When I runs sans waterbelt I sometimes get thrown off and forget about my fuel. Bad! They were all stuck together and a little stale. I was disappointed since I have never had this problem before so I threw most of the bag to the side. Mile 7 was the part of the course I started to recognize since I run part of it with my sister when I'm visiting. I only forgot about the steady incline from 7 - 7.5... oh mama I was happy when that ended. Just after 7.5 I came running up to this courtesy of my awesome sister...

The first sign is a classic :)

My favorite picture! Ready to high five Lindsey Loo!

Helping myself to the oranges and water. My sister had a baggie ready for me to go but forgot to hand off. It's all good and wasn't needed after all.

Mile 8 - 9 (8:52, 8:34): Still feeling really good! This is usually when I start to lose it mentally in a half but not this time. The weather was fantastic and my family gave me a huge boost. I was pushing myself but still had a lot left in the tank. I decided at mile 10 through the end I would start pushing it more even though I knew a huge hill was coming. I just didn't realize how bad it would be.

Mile 10 - 12(8:53, 8:26, 8:53): As soon as I tried to push at mile 10 my legs started to feel heavy as we wrapped through Akron University. The relay teams were fresh off an exchange and I felt surrounded by all the speedsters all of the sudden. Kind of deflating. As we turned down a huge hill I focused on form/leg turnover and I started to feel a bit better. Somehow, someway 10 ended up being my fastest mile of the entire race!

At 11.3 we split from the relay and marathoner runners and turned left to go up the biggest, longest (that's what she said) hill of my life. Seeing signs to caution people in regards to a steep 5% grade incline doesn't make a runner at mile 11 very happy. The freaking uphill lasted nearly 3/4 of the mile. I dropped some profanities.. loudly. On this hill I was reminded why I love runners. A girl younger than me all of the sudden stopped. It seemed she had given up on herself. An older male runner came up from behind taking the hill steady but strong and started motivating this girl to get going again. He basically told her to "come on" and "at least stay right in front of him" because "I am much older and you can't be having an old man pass you". Made me laugh and it got the girl up and running. She passed me and I didn't see her again. Guess it is exactly what she needed!

After the hill I was just done. I walked through the mile 12 water stop (I walk through all my water stops) and convinced myself to just finish. After making an internal deal to not look at the garmin I was off. Of course right after the stop there was yet another hill! I don't know how I didn't walk but I didn't! I stuck with it and kept it steady to the top. Once I reached the top I felt as if I was running in even slower motion but I kept moving.

Mile 13- 13.1 (8:53, 8:00) When I thought I had no more to give we turned down a short hill and into the Akron Aeros stadium. I saw how close the finish line was and I sprinted, passing a couple people. Felt so good! I shook the race directors hand (he shakes the hand of nearly every finisher!), passed by the stage where they were awarding the half marathon master division winners, grabbed a water and bag of food.

Finish time officially is 1:55:10! Not a PR but it is the fastest 1/2 I've done since entering my 30's! Considering my training wasn't exactly where I wanted it to be and I had minimal hill training I had a fantastic for me race. Also, for the first time ever no stomach issues! This time around I opted out of using my water belt of water and electrolyte drink and relyed on the course water only. I didn't drink any gatorade/powerade/nuun. Instead I took in oranges and chomps for my fuel. I think this is what made the difference for me Saturday as well.

This was definitely one of the most challenging, hilly courses I've run. I typically stick to flat courses ;) The course was well supported and volunteers were great! For a relatively new marathon (this was its 8th year) the organization was awesome. Even better than some bigger, older races I've done. I loved all the personal touches; though I did feel like marathoners and relay runners are given a bit more priority and swag. My only complaint was gear check pick-up. It took nearly 40 minutes to get my bag and I was one of the first ones there... Not enough volunteers and definitely the least organized item of the entire race. Still not enough to change my opinion that this is one fantastic race!

upcoming half

Saturday I'll be running the Akron half marathon! I can't tell you if I have ever done a half or a full on a Saturday; it will be a new experience to have Saturday to celebrate and recover. While I had goals of PRing dancing in my head when I signed up for this race I've really had to re-evaluate them. My work travel schedule included a lot of day trips. Too many 15-18 hours spent traveling and not much else. It threw a wrench into my training schedule. I did the best I could but add that to my poor quality eating I'm definitely not in the shape I had originally planned going into Saturday.

I am excited to run the course and experience another race. I have considered the Akron full marathon so I'm considering this half a little taste to see if I like it. I didn't have the desire to run the full this year though I'm kind of kicking myself now (of course!). My sister lives at mile 8 of the course and the rest of the family is close. The husband is excited he doesn't have to wake up nearly as early to take me to another race start :) He can walk to the end of the driveway. Also, my sister setting up a table with water, oranges, pretzels, and candy for the runners. Very awesome. To top it off the weather should be nice and cool (50's at the start). Setting itself up to be a nice race day no matter if I'm prepared or not!

So my goals:

• have fun!
• finish in under 2 hours. I've done this for every half I've raced but this will be interesting on the rolling hill course. I would love a 1:55 and am going to go for it. We will see what happens race morning.

See you on the other side!

Mardi Gras Half-Mary

So, ummm, hi everyone! It's been awhile... I have no excuse other than I really had nothing going on to write about. Talking about my lackluster training, nutso travel schedule, and the cold weather gets a bit tiresome so I took a break. Anyways, I hope with spring around the corner and the fact I keep signing up for races I will be more motivated to blog (and comment on all your wonderful blogs)! Speaking of races I just got back from one...

This past weekend I pretended to be runner and participated in the New Orleans Mardi Gras half marathon. Going into this race I was looking forward to having fun and finally running a race with my high school best friend and her husband. My heart wasn't into running these past couple months and I was a busy traveler who didn't make the time. Overall, I did everything you aren't supposed to do when getting ready to run 13.1 miles!

We arrived on Friday to cool weather, checked-in to our crazy busy hotel, and headed out to Bourbon Street. You know, the street you should definitely go to 2 days before any race :) We found a great place for dinner and then proceeded to visit different bars to stay out of the rain. Our plan backfired as the later it became the harder the rain fell. We ended up back in our hotel drenched.

Saturday our friends met us at our hotel and we headed over to the expo. They had already been the day before but were nice enough to show me the way Saturday. As I picked up my race number and headed to the area for my t-shirt and packet the volunteer states loudly "Half runners to the left, REAL runners to the right". People got pissed about that comment! And he said it repeatedly. Thank you for volunteering sir but maybe stick with full and half from here on out.

At the expo I proceeded to spend some serious money and sign up for another RnR half marathon here in Chicago. I saved $10 and got another free shirt!

After the expo we proceeded to walk to much and have a pre-race "energy drink"

A pre-race hurricane in New Orleans is a a must! We were good and only had 1. After fueling, we went our separate ways then later the hubs and I headed over to Algiers Point because my friend's Aunt was making pre-race dinner.

Race morning came around too early as it always does... 7am start and I had 3/4 of a mile walk to the start line. We arrived with plenty of time and I found my friend and her Aunt.

My friend's speedy husband didn't stick around for photos he had to go line up behind the elites in corral 1 super early. I think he was hoping a little elite-ness would brush off on him ;) After the pic we found our own corrals and waited...

It was a beautiful day for the race, cool but sunny! And it was so nice to see the sun! At this point I'm not going to give you a play by play on how the race went at each mile. I started great, a little too great, and faded quickly. The uneven roads hurt my ankles and feet like I have never hurt before. By mile 10 I didn't think I had anything left in me. I was cursing myself for not training enough and going out too fast. I really wasn't sure I was going to cross the finish line or if I did I thought for sure I would be walking across it. But somewhere I found something in me to keep going and I crossed it running with a chip time of 1:59:37. A new personal worst, yet still under 2 hours!

After crossing I easily found my friend's husband and my hubs and we proceeded to hang out and wait for my friend and her aunt.

so happy to be done!

After the race we found some food, some beer, and hung around watching Sister Hazel and Cowboy Mouth. While the race was good the post-race was awesome. I was every post race could be so fun!

best post-race food EVER!

Then we finally decided to make the hike to the buses back to the hotel to clean up. That afternoon I had the most amazing po'boy sandwich at Mother's and then we finished up our trip in New Orleans with some more post-race "energy drinks" :) Maybe a few too many because I was hurting the next morning! I may be returning for this race every year. Just next time with a little more training under my belt!

Running filled Weekend

Happy Labor Day! Hopefully everyone had a enjoyable and relaxing holiday weekend! I packed the weekend full of running! I have to say it all seemed like a good idea at the time 5 weeks ago...

First up Saturday the first 20 mile training run of this cycle. I was tired, more so than usual, and took the run slow, as it should be done. It was tough, mentally and physically, but luckily the 2nd 10 miles seemed a little better than the first 10. Plus, Jacob met me on the path for the last 2 so that was a nice boost at the end. Saturday's 20 brought my weekly total to 55 miles last week! That is the highest weekly mileage I have ever done!!! Such an awesome feeling to get through that mileage and keep up my regular life :)

Sunday was a rest day at our friends house. We had ourselves a nice little Labor Day cookout. I wasn't that sore from Saturday (yay!) which was a relief because I had myself the Oak Brook half marathon bright and early Monday morning! Although because of the cookout and eating at a random time I didn't have the best pre-race fueling and was starving by the time we returned home. It could have been a lot worse.

I decided to run this half as Pftiz calls for a race later in the week. However, we have tickets to the BMW golf championship next weekend and I couldn't make the Chicago half fit in the schedule along with the tournament. I had my concerns running a half 2 days after a 20 mile training run but just decided to alter my race plan. Instead of racing all out I thought I would take it marathon race pace or slower for the first 5 miles, pick it up slightly the 2nd 4 miles, and race the last 4 miles. It didn't quite happen that way but whatever. I really suck at pacing myself...

The course was a mixture of streets but mostly bike path and crushed gravel paths. The first 3 miles were a cluster (as they usually are). It seemed a bit worse since there was a huge bottleneck as we merged from highway running to onto a bike path through the preserves. The path could fit 3 across and only in some parts. So I was either stuck behind someone or I had a lot of quick passing when the bushes and trees thinned then trying to find race pace again. It was a tough start. Thankfully it started to thin by mile 4. Between 3-4 there was a wooden bridge over a creek that was swaying back and forth as all the runners crossed; it seriously felt like it was going down! My legs felt funny after that bridge and a second around mile 5.5. Then there were the hills that I was so not prepared to run. Ouch! Who knew Oak Brook, IL had mad hills... not me! Luckily I wasn't expecting much from this race other than to get used to "racing" while tired.

Here are my mile splits according to garmy:

mile 1: 9:26

mile 2: 9:06

mile 3: 9:17

mile 4: 9:03

mile 5: 8:56

mile 6: 8:37 - Ridiculous hill at the beginning of 6 that I surged. We were told at 6.5 "It's all downhill from here"

mile 7: 8:57 - crazy hills! Downhill my ass (hurts!)

mile 8: 9:14 - even worse hills and steep declines (quad shredders)

mile 9: 8:53

mile 10: 8:49

mile 11: 8:44

mile 12: 8:38

mile 13: 8:27

last .1 - 7:24

action shot! Jacob caught me right before the finish. and yeah, I just chicked 3 guys!

No PR today but that's okay. I am really happy with my 1:56 (and change) run with minimal soreness. I passed a lot of people the last 5 miles of the race and that felt great! Also, the last half I ran was 2 1/2 years ago, on a flat, fast course with temps in the 50's. Tough to beat younger, flat (with a nice tailwind), and no humidity! In the past I never would have been able to follow up such 50+ mileage week with a sub-2 hour half marathon. I'm really proud and happy with how it all turned out today.

cheers!

The race wouldn't be complete without the post race brew in hand :) It's five o'clock somewhere, right?