The end of 2013, the begining of the recap posts!

I love year end recaps! I enjoy writing my own to relive the year's fun moments (from back in the days when the world was not coated in ice- bleeerch!) I also like to read everyone else's recaps, I like to see what other crazy people have been getting in trouble doing.
It's also amusing to remember the worst, stupidest races of the year too so rest assured I'm going to do that too. 

I think I might do a few of these in a similar manner to last year. I'm so cool, I have multiple year end posts whooooo!!!

Okie Dokie. On to the good stuff.

Best Race.
Oh man... How I want to say Boston! That was supposed to be the race that sticks out in my memory like a shining beacon of amazing athletic accomplishment! I wanted it to be my perfect race so badly, and as fantastic as it turned out (my personal race, not anything else clearly) it isn't at the top of the list. Boston wins for other things though so stay tuned.

OK so REAL best race. It's an effing tie. Between a race that counted for a lot and one that totally did not.
Smuttynose (October-Marathon, 3:25:45)
And... The run leg of the Rev3 OOB team I was on (I know, random...?) (August-13.1, 1:37:10)

It was perfect and amazing (and VERY much worked for) for things to be perfect at Smuttynose. I had never had a marathon like that before and I know they don't play out that way every time. I went in determined to BQ with a time that would enable me to sign up earlier than this year- NO more squeaking in for me! Despite the crapola weather my race went exactly to plan. Every mile flew by, I did everything right, I left it all out there and was not 100% happy in the leg department for a few weeks.... And it was amazing. Whenever I need to remember why I do marathons I just remember that and I'm like "oh right..."

Smuttynose.... The last 400 hurts like a bitch. Woof.

As for Rev3 that was a complete surprise, and I don't get many of those since I pretty much know how my legs are going to react. It just happened that I was at the exact point in my marathon training, on a course that played to my strengths, on a day where the humidity finally broke (somewhat) and I was able to crank it up and run fast and badass. I had encountered a couple 13.1's this year that left my confidence shaken slightly- mostly just wondering if I had lost quite a bit of speed with ultra training. This took care of that nonsense and reminded me how much I like the Half Distance.

Rev3 OOB.... If I can show boat like this I'm clearly not pushing hard enough!

 

Best race because you only get one first time, and DUH I got engaged...
Well Boston Obviously. (and I did run a PR that day which I then killed at Smuttynose)
Other fun facts from this race: I did not have a great first half but then felt better and better, I certainly was tired at the end but maintained pretty well after I made it over the pesky hills. This was a huge confidence boost since my previous marathons had been a struggle for the final 10K.
I'm really excited to be qualified again this year. I have a feeling that I am going to enjoy myself even more since I know what to anticipate. I also expect the aftermath to be requiring fewer swat teams.... I'm not sure how Eric is going to top 2013 but he has 4 months to think about it (kidding Eric, kidding...)

Yay! A happy post race moment!!!

Worst stupidest biggest waste of time races.
UGH Effing Old Port Half. On the merits of sheer stupidity. I will never ever do this race again because it was terrible on so many levels and I don't make repeat mistakes. Like signing up for races that are awful more than once.

Stupid Old Port Half.

Also.... I just hate the Derry 16 miler. It's a well run race! They do a nice job running a decent sized race, in the dead of winter, in a pretty tiny town. What I hate about this race is nobody's fault- it's a race that leaves me questioning everything and 98% dead. So yeah, no thanks.
(and for 1st time Boston runners who do this race for the "prep" quality of it- the hills here do NOT accurately represent what you will see in Boston. Boston has hills. Derry has mountains. So actually, if you want Boston to feel easy do this ASAP!!!!)

Race that I ran on a whim to get an aided training run, which had a bad reputation and I ended up really enjoying.
Bands On The Run in Lewiston.
Who knows why I enjoyed this. Maybe because all I had heard was that it was a shit show in 2012 so my expectations were low. Reaaaaaaaaly low.
Now honestly, the majority of the course is nothing to get excited about. But it is fairly challenging without being brutal, has a section of trail that is entertaining if you aren't going at a blazing speed, and they did a good job this year with plenty of water stops and bathrooms. So, all in all not a bad race. I would consider going back in 2014 and I'd suggest it to friends as well.

Races that will be perennial favorites of mine, forever.
Mount Desert Island, Full or Half
Now that I have run both I can honestly say that the full is one of my favorite courses to run on, hands down. It is not an easy course or one that would be ideal for a guaranteed PR or BQ (although it is doable!) I really missed doing the whole course this year- although it would have god damned killed me.
As far as the half goes same deal. Challenging course for sure, but I expect that it will draw some very fast people in the upcoming years ending my reign as a podium finisher. There are a few wrinkles to work out after this year but nothing major or worrying. It was definitely "MDI lite" in 2013- a little messy at the start (and much less exciting! the start of the Marathon is legendary) and it would be nice to have a little pomp and circumstance for future podium finishers (*ahem* *use the podium* *ahem*) But those minor silly things aside, I'd definitely force my friends to get up to MDI and run this. Yearly.

MDI is even pretty in the rain! (good thing...)

My favorite picture.
Because why not? It's my blog and if I want to post all the pictures of myself I can!
This is the winner, from GCI back in July when it was warm and not snowy out.

It looks like I am winning.
I'm not.
I am, however, leading the peloton...
(before I bombed at mile 19 and they all caught me! Hah!)

 

So that is it for today's recap post. Much more to come since I like to string these things out for as long as possible!

I return! And my thoughts on getting back into the swing of things.

Well hello internet, I am back.

I just took a couple weeks off from most things online. I completely avoided blogs! (I am a jerk but I really just couldn't take another sponsored "holiday gifts!!!" post) So instead of sticking around and getting grouchy about things that have nothing to do with me, I took a break from the whole thing. With only about 2 weeks to go until Christmas, and with the holiday frenzy in full swing this might seem like an odd time to reemerge.... However,  my break should enable me to be able to stomach 2,000 more reviews of various protein powders, and Mizuno Wave 17's (which everyone seems to have given a pretty cookie cutter review to. y'all wait, when I get a pair I'll let you know if they are REALLY that good!)
I also declined to look at Dailymile. (or even logging miles into it!) I just DID.NOT.CARE. Sometimes I find it quite inspiring to see what others are up to but for the past few weeks I have decided that it's more important to focus on what I need to do, with no regard to the training schedules of other people who have completely different goals than I! (novel, I know)
I enjoyed my break because I kinda hated the internet and that's not nice.

 

HAH!!!! That was ME!!!! But I'm better now...

Not wanting to cast the interwebs completely to the curb, I productively spent internet time on Instagram, winning all the Holiday prizes. Duh. With Grinchy gems like this how can you lose?

I was unimpressed by this lame Christmas parade.

I found my mojo early last week which was nice. Thanks to everyone for your helpful comments relating to my malaise. I sometimes need to remind myself that it ok to take a rest and that I should not get so damn emotional about it. The amount that I work out in no way, shape or form establishes my worth as a human being. And I really enjoy my routine so when I do not, it is ok to step back and take a breather. I did, and now I feel quite refreshed!

Mulling over things that contributed to my mini burnout.
I am not the kind of athlete who can race every weekend. **gasp call the blogger cops!!**
During the past year I did fewer races than in 2012 but I put 100% of myself into each one that was important to me. In the end, on top of being physically exhausted I was quite emotionally drained. I am very good at getting into a competitive mental mindset- but it takes a lot out of me! (especially in October- when I had 2 races that were very important to me and took a HUGE amount of mental fortitude, and a horse show where I threw down maximum effort in a challenging situation. tough stuff.)
I actually enjoy challenges like that where I can prove my mental (and physical) toughness to myself but need to cut myself a little slack about wanting to sit on the couch and watch terrible TV for 6 weeks straight after it is all over!
Physically I was pretty much done after NYCM and only in the past week have I felt remotely good and normal. I have no idea how people can do 6 marathons in 6 weeks... Good for them- but it certainly is not for me! I would have a broken leg constantly... Perhaps those runners simply use the races more as social outings and training runs? Or perhaps they have a bigger ability to stay at the top of their game for longer than I do? Either way, I know it is not for me!

Right now I am having a really good time with my training and working hard, without killing myself with a ton of mileage. I'm getting in some great cross training and focusing on getting much stronger to avoid any more weeks of butt discomfort. (which was a drag) I know that my improved training in 2013 thanks to Kelsey played a huge part in keeping me uninjured but I was close enough during the months of September and October. A good reminder to continue to get stronger!

I do not have a marathon planned until Boston and I feel quite fantastic about that. I clearly am trying to get arrested by the blogger cops today because I don't think that any marathoning blog author ever admits to that- or rarely, very rarely. I am quite excited for Boston and plan to train well this winter and to have a PR there, all things being equal. But am I bummed not to have to gear up for a February 26.2? NO!

I have a 10K on January 1st to ring in the New Year. I haven't "really" run a 10K in a very long time. My best guess is that I will not PR since my current (2012) PR is a 43:43 and I just can't see myself running 6, 7:02 miles- yuck!! My course PR for this particular race is 47:42 and I absolutely believe I can do better than that. Mo goal is 45:00 barring 30 MPH headwinds which are the bane of my existence. I'm excited by the prospect of only racing for 45 minutes but also a bit horrified thinking of basically redlining the whole damn thing! Hahaha oh well, it is bound to be an adventure!

So that's about it from the snowy and cold arctic tundra of Maine. Now that I am gracing the internet with my presence again I'll have a belated November recap up soon.

Rev3 Maine recap, in which Pace Booty lives up to its name.....

Once upon a time, a long LONG time ago (as in the middle of winter) a turbo charged super competitive all woman's relay team was formed.
Knowing that all three of us were more than capable in our respective disciplines we had the podium in our crosshairs. Well, this was before we discovered that in relays there are no gender prizes. Oh well, we don't mind beating a lot of male and mixed gender teams too!

The whole team, workin' it for the camera.
And I'm not short. These girls are just tall.

Jules (on the left) is an amazing swimmer. Cranks out the HM distance like it is NBD and only occasionally pukes a little in her mouth. Pretty damn impressive! She had just done a HM the week before so this was a walk in the park for her...
Kellie (the very tallest one in the middle) came with a reputation of being "an animal on the bike". She does centuries regularly just for fun! She is actually an Ironman which is pretty ridiculous/amazing.
And then there is me, the short one, the BQ marathoner, the pink haired, ninja socked, peanut butter soaked runner. 
And yes, we are amazing.

What a beautiful morning!

After a night in a slightly seedy motel, mostly tossing and turning to the dulcet sounds of a malfunctioning a/c unit and the typical set of youngsters fighting drunkenly in the hallway at 3:10, we awoke (or, acknowledged the alarm) to the most spectacular day imaginable!

There is no better team name. NONE.

After a bit of texting and twittering I found my team mates as Jules prepared for the swim. Kellie had had an unfortunate lapse and forgotten her water bottle cage and all her nutrition. Whoops! Luckily Julia and Dutch had a few extra bikes and a bag of snacks in their car so she was set straight without further ado. It is always good to have friends who are prepared. 



Julia ready to ROCK the swim!

Jules hopped in the water to acclimate to the frigid temps and  to fight off the sharks and a small disaster struck. The timing chip fell off her ankle and floated away, out to sea, on the low, low tide. She had such peace of mind that I hardly noticed the incident and she came back to where Dutch and I were animatedly chatting about National Waffle Day without missing a beat.
It is good to get the trouble out of the way early.

There goes Julia's swim wave. All 8 million of them, yikes!

Once Jules (and Eric) were in the water Kellie and I decided there was nothing more that we could do on the beach in the freezing cold sand. After leaving 400 tri bags in Jules and Dutch's car the two of us went to transition to strategize our imminent victory.

Kellie getting psyched!
Or something like that...

Kellie spent a moment questioning her life choice to ride 56 miles on legs that she claimed were slightly untrained (false.) We had just struck up an excellent conversation about her upcoming nuptials when BOOM! Julia ran in, the second relay-er out of the water in ALL kinds of blazing speed. There was a .25 mile run from the water, or something just ghastly like that.

AND she was OFF!!!

We were sitting pretty, on top of the world. Jules had a solid swim (34 minutes? I think?) she did not vomit, she was about 98% coherent and 100% badass.  Then.... We had a few hours to kill.  We watched the pro's roll in. I chilled with my family in law. I got into my race gear hours early to appease my SIL who is basically Eric in a a female body (which is why we get along like peas and carrots.)  I ate 2 PB&J's. And then I walked back to transition.



Jen (picking me up like a boss) murdered the bike in something insane like a 2:20. WHAT?

The best part of being on a relay team is the fun of sitting in transition, cheering for athletes as they run in and hanging with your friends. Who like to pick me up.
Kellie had guessed that she would complete the bike in 3 hours, Eric swore up and down that she was sandbagging and to be ready at the 2:45 mark (and as previously mentioned, I was ready at the 1:45 mark.)
At 3:00 Jules and I started getting edgy.
At 3:05 you would have thought the world was ending.
At 3:10 we decided that she surely had sustained grievous injury or a flat.
We might be impatient people?
At 3:12 she cranked in and I HIT THE ROAD!!!

And yeah. There are currently no pictures to prove that I did anything other that twiddle around all day eating and mouthing off.
I'm going to spare everyone the blow by blow of the run since this was a team day but here is a recap:
The course was pretty flat, much more flat then anything I have run this year. It was close to 80 but not too humid, a VERY nice change. I had a couple of pretty amazing runs before this one which planted the seed in my head that my (Boston 1/2 split) or 1:42 might be feasible.

It was the best race I had run since Boston. At every mile my whole body said "yes, I can do this, no problem" and so I did. I saw many of my friends out there which was awesome but my focus rarely shifted from running and how amazing it felt. We all know that races like this can be hard to come by so I simply enjoyed it, and motored on to a 1:37:10 finish. Pretty damn close to my current PR of 1:36:40 (from April of '12)

I was a touch incoherent at the finish. All in all though I felt great and was really pleased with my effort! Finishing as a team was really awesome and that is something that makes a relay unique! Our overall finishing time was 5:30:23. We are fast and dangerous. The following pictures give an excellent representation of this amazing badass/danger persona that we all bring to the table. 



Finishing as a team!! Whoooo! Badass!



I have to put in the official picture because it's cool!

Pace Booty! 2nd pace female team, 6th overall. What a blast!!!

Rev3 OOB Relay weekend!

I'm very excited for this weekend!
It's Rev3 round 2 for the season, as I head down there on Sunday to be part of a kickass women's team. Thankfully, all I have to do is show up and run. I'll leave the shark infested ocean swimming and the 56 mile bike to the other ladies, thank you very much.

Hopefully we look as pumped as these people. #enthused

My hope is that I can woman up for a better half than at Quassy. Or at the Old Port Half. Or, come to think of it, any half I have done thus far in 2013. A heads up on the fact that this is a ridiculous goal at this time as I am freshly off Ultra training and happy (boring) rest time. The past two weeks of training have been wonderful and I feel fantastic but these legs will be hard pressed to do much better than a 1:49 or so. BLERCH.

Lucky for me we have a team with a truly excellent swimmer (she wins awards, for serious)  and a biker whose prowess is quite remarkable (she rides 100 miles before breakfast pretty much daily). They are beasts of athletes and I am delighted to be teaming up with them. I guarantee lots of pictures and tales of total domination. (those pesky all male teams better watch out!)

Oh, and the weather is shaping up to be glorious! So unusual. So exciting!

 

Since this is my first official race as part of the Oiselle Volee team I'm justifiably bragging (and not humbly) about how excited I am to represent! YAY I'M EXCITED!!!

Ok I'm done.

Except not really. 

That's ME! Somebody has to bring it coast to coast! ME!

That's ME TOO!!!
My first time on the Athletes page!!!

I can't promise that these screenshots won't become a regular thing.

 

Post OOB excitement I promise to catch everybody up on where I'm at with my Fall Marathon training, it's almost time for an August recap, and I have recently been asked some excellent questions regarding running, prancing, eating and being awesome which I plan to answer here on my blog. Luckily, these queries were not the kind which require an expert reply. (it is good to note, ask me questions at your own risk and remember that I'm the queen of slightly crazy/fantastic life choices!)

 

Recovery.

I have spent the past 12 days recovering from GCI, but more importantly recovering from an intense training cycle which started in December of 2012, contained 2 marathons which were on the speedy side, a 50K, and a bunch of high volume weeks (months.)

 

I do not like recovering. It is boring.

 

But dudes, it is indeed relative. While you might be picturing me lounging on a hammock, compression socks firmly in place, martini in hand while my body healed and rejuvenated HERE is what I have actually been doing.

 

-GCI was sandwiched in between my 2 busiest weeks of the summer. So on the Monday after GCI I went back to it. I was on my feet teaching (and by on my feet I mean vigorously walking, often jogging around if it was my turn to motivate a lazy pony...) for 9-10 hours a day. No resting. Zero rest. (and hey, this is a good thing! I can't be resting if I want to make cash money so busy is good.)

-I did B2B but that doesn't count for anything other than these remarkably absurd pictures. 

 

 

Muscles. Hello.

We are clearly excited. And absurd.

-I went back to the *quiet life* this week, only teaching for about 8 hours a day but I also put my horses back to work in earnest. No REST. (and again. no rest is GOOD! Gotta work!)

-I handled 600 bales of hay last night. 600 might not sound like a lot, but I'm the stacker- so trust me when I say that IT. IS. #poorlittleme #sobrave Hahaha yeah, THIS is why I'm so damn muscly!

 

So the message here is that while I have not been running and have been following my rest plan like the model athlete that I am it certainly has not been very relaxing. This is not a bad thing, as on the one quiet day of my weekend I got very bored (since I did not have a 4 hour workout) and decided that I would DIE if I couldn't start doing normal things again soon. (I might have been a bit dramatic) I was given permission to go out for a teeny tiny 30 minute run today which I am looking forward to tremendously.

 

The smart side of my brain knows and accepts that a recovery period is absolutely critical in order to be a life long runner. I continue to be so very pleased that I have remained uninjured this season and feel that following the plan given to me by Coach Kelsey contributes to that 100%.

We all know how I spent last late summer...... Sidelined for 3 weeks to let the shin heal. As soon as I got back to it I hurt my foot, since I had been running lop-sided for months with the shin shit, running normally again caused much drama. Immediately after that I was plagued with pesky Achilles pain for a few weeks, and a VERY painful hip flexor which kept me up many nights. SERIOUSLY.... So dumb!

Staying uninjured is probably part luck and part hard work. I have put in a HELL of a lot of hard work doing things I used to dislike like cross training. Which believe it or not *ahem* is very very important if you want to be a damn runner.

 

So anyway. Things will get exciting soon once boring mandatory rest is over!  

Beach To Beacon, a FUN day!

Last March I signed up for Beach to Beacon, along with the rest of the free world, in the same week that I put in my application for GCI. I had decided that if I did 't get into GCI then (for the first time ever) I might put in a huge effort at B2B and win the whole damn thing, beating the elites and Kenyans like it was no big thang.

As we all know I snagged a coveted GCI spot and made that my A race. Once again poor little B2B had to take a back seat to a bigger more badass race. Sorry. But not really because I have no plans to PR the 10K this year....

Knowing that I was still in the "forbidden to run" time period of my GCI recovery I decided that it would be a wonderful day to have the social event of the season and to watch my friends have kickass races. While I ran alongside ALL OF THEM!

A side note on B2B being the social event of the season: Everyone is there. And you CAN NOT find anyone. It was tough enough keeping track of the people in my group let alone FIND anyone!

 

 

 

My SIL Jyoti,  My sister Kate, ME and my BFF Angie!
Jyoti and Angie are racing their FIRST EVER Half Marathons in October so this was a big race for them!

This race is usually twelve million degrees, one hundred percent humidity and blazing sunshine. This year it was cool and cloudy, quite ideal actually but rather humid once you got rolling.

I was pretty excited for this run as my legs felt ready to do something other than yoga and a little biking. I seem to have beaten the ever loving bejeebus out of my little toe at GCI resulting in what might be my first toenail casualty of all time. It was quite painful all week but finally had calmed down. So overall, I was ready to run will ALL the people and take ALL the pics!!

Right after the start.
Angie and Kate moving along!

Kate and Angie set off at a very similar pace so I went with them through the worst of the traffic and congestion that always occurs here. I wasn't sure what pace Ang was planning to maintain but she warmed up well and really picked it up at mile 2- she is really looking awesome at this point and will be more than ready for her Half debut in October. Kate, who claims not to be a runner seemed to run just fine proving that she is a very big liar who lies!! She should probably do a half too, it's what all the cool kids are doing (obviously...)

 

Around the 5K point bad things started to happen!!!

 

Shit. We got passed by the damn lighthouse! NOOOOO!!

Yeah, the moose runner was moonlighting as a lighthouse and he moseyed on past us. I ran over to him... "Look lighthouse" I said "I've really had it with you passing me while driving a huge costume... Enough is enough!" He laughed in a manner that was clearly evil and proceeded to push his lighthouse faster. "WELL" I shouted "At LEAST you aren't a DAMN MOOSE today!!!" "Next week I will be" he trilled, while he ran away to certain victory. Hmmmmph.

And then.....
The camelbak's started running by. NOOOO!!!

BTW: If you are confused about why this had suddenly turned into a truly dreadful day read here: Now you understand!

 

Not to be deterred by moose-men and backpack runners we ran on as Angie continued to pick up the pace and as Kate bowed, waved and blew kisses to her throngs of adoring fans lining the streets of Cape Elizabeth. Good times! At mile 5, concerned that if I finished they would not let me back on course I turned around and ran back to mile 4. At B2B I like to get the most bang for my buck and think that 2 extra miles gave me just that.

 

At mile 4 I found Eric and Jyoti!
And Jyoti was running on pace to PR so I was extra glad I found them!

The tricky thing about Beach To Beacon is that in the last mile or so of the course there are a couple of sneaky hills that can catch a runner off guard. Being the amazing liar cheerleader that I am I told Jyoti that it was ALL FLAT! NO more HILLS! I do not think she believed me which was wise since I was clearly fibbing... She didn't let the hills bother her though and she motored thru the finish for a sweet PR! Definitely on her way to a really great first 13.1 experience in a few months which I'm super excited for!

 

YAY! Photo op with Joan Benoit Samuelson!

So obviously I got my picture taken with Joanie because she is as badass as they come. I went to put my arm around her and it bounced off her formidable muscles- that woman is a rock. I'm gonna have to up my game if I want to grow up to be as cool as she is.... She is also very tiny and I assumed in this picture I would tower over her like a big jolly green giant. Which I do so all of you just be quiet.

 

We all finished and quickly discovered that not only did Angie PR too but my friend Amy was there at the finish! It was a wonderful surprise as she lives in CT and we are lucky to see her a couple times a year. I was very happy that she made the trip to the race and that we were able to spend a little time catching up and eating frozen yogurt bars (again the yasso bar truck made an appearance- those things are ballin'...)

 

The happy finishers!

 

 So a successful day at the races. I'm wicked happy for the future half marathon girls on their PR's! I'm also happy that I was able to enjoy this race in such a relaxed way- I had a blast playing paparazzi, seeing everyone have awesome finishes and taking in the scenery and awesome crowds.
These good things somehow managed to outweigh the pain of being beaten by the lighthouse... That's a tough blow!!

Great Cranberry Island 50K. It was a long race.

After pondering for the past 2 days about a clever way to begin this blog post about my recent 50K adventure I have given up hope. Clever is not going to happen. I am also going to avoid waxing poetic about how damn happy I was (am) about having the opportunity to run this race in its last year (who am I kidding, I am clearly going to do this. I might even give a whole friggin' press release like I did to Mary Ropp on Sunday morning. I get a bit verbose when I am running on no sleep, haha sorry :-))

 

I might be lacking in clever opening lines but here are a few titles that I considered for your enjoyment:

"The tale of two races in one, one amazing, one less so"

"The time the DJ dropped the bass one too many times and broke it.. or maybe there was a noise curfew?"

"The time we learned that Sara calls people who get frisky in the tent next door "campground sex offenders" (but really, go for it you guys. high five.)

"One time I was racing... to the next porta potti....."

 

Now to the good stuff.

 

Eric and I headed to Bar Harbor in the pouring rain on Friday after I wrapped up one of the busiest work weeks I have had this summer. I was feeling good despite having a few aches and pains from being on my feet 9 plus hours a day all week- it's life! We are all busy and that's that.

We had a normal evening of feasting on pasta, me eating cookies in bed and preparing for an early day. I slept quite well and woke up in the exact same head space I was in before Boston. I saw this as a very good sign. I call it my "staring space" because if you were to look at me or try to chat I might look totally spaced out. Here's the deal though, I'm just ALL inside my head in a weird and slightly creepy way. (it is creepy.) We hit the road on time, had a wicked fun ferry ride, accidentally stole one guys tent (whoops!) and got set up in plenty of time.  

 

Yay for racing friends!!!

As everyone knows I went into this race feeling good about my training cycle, uninjured, and with a flexible but pretty well thought out plan. I was getting a little pissed off at myself though because no matter what I could not figure out if I should treat the race like a slow-death-march or a run-fast-it's-only-5-miles-longer-than-a-marathon-wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! Totally undecided. My final brilliant plan was that it was only 5 miles longer than a damn marathon and I should run it like a friggin' boss, leave it all out there, puke, break, murder myself in the face, be badass and NEVER EVER say I should have gone harder.  

Dudes. Goal accomplished. Which might not have been the best plan!!!

 

At the start! So excited! TOO EXCITED!!!!

As soon as I started running I pulled my head out of my creepy staring place and got SO PUMPED. I WAS OMG SO EXCITED. Ridiculous person that I am, I sped off to conquer the 5K I was running. Whoops. I was excited about everything, I met ALL the friends, I found my name on a phone pole, I saw the scary brown geese for the 1st of many times, I shouted everyone's name and jumped up and down. The miles must have flown by because the first time I looked at my watch it was at mile 8. And my watch read just a touch over 1 hour. OH SHIT. I was having ALL the fun though so this small detail did not concern me (it should have.) There were some hills, just little bitch hills at first later in the race they felt like Mt Everest- I'm sure other runners might agree with this... Other than those pests the course was freaking FUN- so pretty, so sunny, such a nice breeze all around fab.

 

Eric jumped in to run a couple laps with me at mile 11. I was clearly still in my very happy place at this point and we very happily chugged along at a blazing BQ pace, me yelling at the ducks, my new friends, anyone who would listen and generally being very enthusiastic. 

Mile 15 rolled around with a bit of GI disturbance that I took care of with plans to resume my kickass race domination. My plan worked well until mile 19. At mile 19 things took a turn for the worse, the unexpected, and to a place that I have never traveled to as a runner.

 

 For better or worse whenever I have hit the wall before I have been able to sneak over it, crawl under it, or kick it in the face until it breaks. At mile 19 of GCI I hit the hugest wall I have ever seen. From mile 19 to 21 I tried to pull it back together, knowing that I had been hydrating and eating properly, knowing that I had put in the damn work and knowing it was a perfect day to run.

At mile 21, with Eric reminding me that 10 miles is no biggie for me I basically lost my cheese off my cracker (there may have been tears.) (10 miles seemed impossible!) I knew there was no way I could make my "A" goal, I knew that my "run however you feel like running" plan wasn't panning out, and I knew that from my dumb belly to my feet I hurt worse that I ever had before while running. TOTAL system failure. I was stopping at every porta potty, I could no longer keep up with my hydration and every time I moved faster than a shuffle I felt like I was going to puke or just die. UGH EFFING UGH! Eric was planning to stop running at mile 21 but he stuck with me thru another lap and having him there was a huge morale boost. We ran thru the marathon split in 4:00 and I knew I could still make my "B" goal, or close to it, even if I had to walk most of the final lap.

 

 Sometimes in any competition when things aren't going according to plan one has a choice, quit, pout, or make the best of it.  At mile 27 I seriously considered sitting on the side of the road to cry for a bit, I said to Eric "I think I can finish" and not only did he agree but a couple of girls ran by and they were like "DUH, of COURSE you can." At that point I decided that no matter what I would enjoy the final lap. It would, after all be my final lap in the final chapter of this race on GCI and I was determined not to sob and snot my way thru it. So I manned the fuck up. I ran/walked/hobbled my way as fast as I could (not fast) over those last few miles. An untimely additional porta potty trip made me nervous about coming in under 5 hours, and when my legs cramped up when I tried to run faster than a turtle I decided my "F" goal was going to have to be ok. (F goal, Fucking Finish. Yes, we all have those days...)

 

I ran thru the finish in 5:04. I have no idea how I felt or what happened or anything. I was in a gross amount of discomfort so went and sat down.  

 

 

 

Me. Done. Thank Heavens!

Right away I felt much better!

I was exhausted.

I was very glad to be done and sat in a stupor for a few minutes before taking a fantastic shower (I have never been so salt covered) drinking a bunch of Gatorade, talking to my new running friends and taking a short grass nap.

Then we took a mile walk to look at all the pretty things!

 

 It took me a couple of days to get around to writing this because I had to mull it over for a bit. It was quite an enormous accomplishment and even though I did not meet my A goal I learned a lot. I know a bit better now what I could improve on if there is another 50K in my future. I also know that even thru a shit ton of problems I can push myself for 31 miles- which is fairly insane from a normal perspective!
I feel like the people made the event. It was really fantastic, well run and a group of awesome cool runners. My kind of people. These are people that I will be happy to see again, snuggle with (although our snuggle-buddy had to leave the party early!) share beer and war stories with and commiserate over all the struggles of running with.

I'm not going to lie. If this race was going to take place again next year I'd be signing up on day ONE ready to tackle it again!  (Gary Allen/Mary Ropp comeonnnnnnnnn! one more year! pleeeease???)

It was an amazing adventure. I keep looking back on the weekend with only positive feelings (which is weird for my type-A self to do when I crash and burn in such a spectacular manner!) I'm so happy I got to experience the race, the island, the people and new friends.....

(see you all at MDI. less than 3 months not that I'm counting!)

GCI 50K: 5 days and counting....

5 days to go.

Yikes.

 

Luckily, with only a few more days to go I don't have much time to worry about it.

I spent a few minutes this weekend really trying to decide how prepared I feel, what my race plan is and if I have settled on a goal finishing time.
I came to the following logical conclusions.

1: I feel fine. My training cycle has been legit. The one thing I wish for was to have completed a run over 20 miles with success... No point in stressing over that detail now- I run marathons happily *ahem* with my longest run at 19 so... fingers crossed!!!
 I have been extremely happy with the vast majority of my runs, my pace, my legs feel good and my crosstraining has been significant. I signed up for this race with the goal to challenge myself and push beyond my comfort zone and I believe I will meet both those goals. I certainly have pushed thru the training and the race is absolutely outside of my comfort zone. **insert vomiting noise HERE!**

2: My race plan is still a work in progress but I have decided upon several things. I'm not going to charge out of the start like a lunatic but I'm not going to hold myself to a 10:00 mile either. That has not been working well in my training runs so why should it in a race? I know I can hold an 8:10 pace for 26 miles. I do not plan on doing so for 31. (according to the internet I should plan to add at least 90 seconds per mile to my current marathon pace. my goal is to keep it closer to 60 seconds.) I plan to hydrate after every lap (at races I hydrate every 4 miles) and to try to eat at mile 5, 10, 15 and 20 (as I would in a marathon if all went well.) I imagine that by mile 20 and beyond I simply will not be able to choke anything down and that's ok. Eric is all ready to run a couple laps with me for moral support and I believe I have coerced (aka blackmailed) Andy into being ready to run a lap if I'm dying a horrible agonistic death.

3: My goal finishing time is, as stated above, something around a 9:10 pace. I hope to finish in the general ballpark of 4:45. In this plan I have chosen to eliminate all rude variables such as 90 degree temps, bad GI situations, deciding to stop and take a break at mile 20, and so forth. I am not sure how things will play out after mile 26 so taking that into consideration my "B" goal is to maintain a 9:30 pace, which still seems perfectly reasonable for such a ridiculously long effort and would be well within the range of times that would make me happy.

The moral of the story is that while I have had a solid, uninjured training cycle and am currently feeling both mentally and physically prepared to conquer this ridiculous volume of running there are things that I simply can not control. I have said before that if you put in the time and consistent effort then there should be few surprises on race day- either negative or positive. Knowing my bod the way I do reminds me that in a high mileage situation, especially in the hot humid summer this isn't always a true statement.
However. I plan to run a solid race. I am certainly going to be fit starting up Fall marathon season, if nothing else!!! I am excited for a new adventure, one which I have heard SO many good things about and feel lucky to be attending in its last year.
In a week I should have some damn good stories to tell too- if you want to hear about tedious miles, bleeding feet, chaffing and gulping Gatorade that is!!

Old Port Half Marathon. BLAH to the effing BLAH.

Another Half Marathon, another training day. (getting sick of this trend yet??)

Another day that honestly could not have been much more hot and humid. And anyone who thinks Portland is a flat town needs to look again. OPH organizers, did you hunt down every hill in Portland on purpose? Seriously?

 

Eric had had an event on Saturday (more on that later!) and I had had a solid week of training which included a legit 10 miles at some kind of Marathon (NOT ultra) tempo. Whoops!! And a ton of bike miles on Saturday. And a whole bunch of other stuff that is hardly worth mentioning, except for the noticeable fact that my legs were dead on Sunday AM. NO juice. DEAD.

 

I assumed we would take it easy but still be able to squeak out something in the 1:55 range.

OH SNAP. NO SIR.

 

The whole gang pre race.
We had no idea what lay ahead.
Well, I did not as I never bother to look at course maps/elevation profiles....

Why do we get up at 4:30 to do this....?

I want to preface this by saying that I do not want to sound like a negative Nancy about this race. (but I am going to, so if you don't want to hear about it feel free to exit.)

All you need to do is look at the results to know it was a long (literally, the course was stupid long) hard, HILLY as SHIT, and HOT, HUMID race for everyone.

The people who ran close to their normal pace were ALL over the sides of the street hooked up to IV's or racked out in the med tent. So yeah, not a great day for many.

 

The race got off to a funky start for us as we were crammed in the middle of a tight bottleneck of runners for the first mile. That was no big deal, as it was already a hot morning and we didn't want to crank off to a stupid fast start (oh and mile 1 was a 10:37 which is a number I have never seen on my watch during a race before. this was the first of a few things I had never seen in a race before.)

Traffic eased up in mile 2 and we increased our pace to around 8:45 or so.

I was dripping sweat after this mile. Dripping to the point I thought I must be sick, or there must be something actually wrong with me. The sun was blazing though, and the air was lifeless. There was no getting dry and therefore, no way for our bodies to try to cool down (after mile 2. how awesome)

Then the hills came. In the West End of Portland there is a big hill, which includes a narrow path, which obviously caused a major traffic jam. At this point we kinda looked at each other and were like "we can walk faster up this" so we did. (strike 2: I have NEVER walked in a race before!)

The terrain was like this. Flat, flat WALL OF TERROR! flat flat, MOUNT EVEREST.

Fuck. My. Stupid. Running. Career.

 

We called it a day. Since neither of us had any goal for this race and did not actually want to end up seizing on the road side with a pack of EMT's trying to revive us we trundled. Walked/stopped at every water stop. I stopped to go pee in a porta pottie! (strike THREE! I might pee behind a tree real quick but I never take the time to use an actual bathroom...) Eric turned into a one man sprinkler system as he got progressively more sweaty. I avoided running behind/next to or near him. He frightened people every time we snuck up on them because his shoes were so full of sweat that (loudly) they were going SQUISH SQUICH. He's still good looking even when he is sweaty *sighs dreamily*

 

The only good part of this race was the amazing cheering team of Sarah and Danielle who freaked out so much every time we passed them that we thought, for a moment, that we must be winning!! "RUN FASTER" they would scream, at an amazing decibel level,  while leaping up and down, cartwheeling and back handspringing along side us as we tried to grunt appreciatively in their general direction.

Seriously. It was like we were leading the Tour De France. That much love!

And we loved it! Thanks you guys!!

 

We finished in a tragic 2:07. But didn't really care as we were just glad to be done, sto p running and pour ice cold water straight down our throats!

OH... Except there was no water as the environmentally friendly barrel was empty (go ahead OPH, tell me it wasn't. I dare you. Make this dehydrated/overheated runner more pissed!!) I was horrified. Eric went to sit in the shade, possibly pass out and die from the heat and lack of water and I looked for some sort of magic oasis where cold bottles of water and Gatorade might be. No luck. (STRIKE FOUR. I have NEVER seen such a thing at a race before!)

 

Dear Old Port Half. You have a fun band. You give 2 free beers and pizza to every of age runner.

SCREW ALL THAT. You MUST have more actual hydrating beverages at the end. Coconut water does NOT count. I can't think of anything more ridiculous.

 

Sure, 500 half marathoners crossed the line before us.

Possibly the same number of 5K runners. And the water barrel was empty. Sure, you guys were probably about to refill it. To a throng of runners 10 deep and growing, on each side of this ill conceived hydration station. UGH!

It was nice to be given a reusable bottle. It was ridiculous to not have it pre filled with water.

I'm going to stop talking about this now as I have made my point. Rant over.

 

How we felt about the lack of beverages at the finish.

We more or less foraged around for what we could find, ingesting multiple iced tea samples (sorry iced tea people! desperate times!) Trying to chug coconut water (after the water ran out there was a run on the coconut water supply- the guy nicely gave me a couple warm containers but it's hard to get hot coconut water down the hatch..) We ate some fro-yo pops (those are delicious).

 

After this lovely meal and after some time lying on the ground in the shade we were both more or less back up to snuff. It was a day much more conducive to lounging in the shade, beer in hand than doing fantastic feats of athleticism which made from 10:00 or so on much more pleasant. As previously mentioned, there was a good band, an endless supply of beer, and pizza.

 

So all in all... I might not leap at the chance to do this race again. I could be talked into it for the social aspect if I were promised a 20 ounce bottle of Poland Spring at the end. It might be a situation similar to Bands on The Run in 2012- there were some issues that year that they did a great job correcting for this year. I know many people had the same complaints as I have expressed so possibly with a few tweaks this could be a better event.

(and if nothing else it was more or less exactly what I was supposed to do training wise, with less than 2 weeks until GCI!)

June Recap

Before I wax poetic about June 2013 I want to reflect for a moment about where I was a year ago.  

So yeah, I had a 202 mile month in June of 2012. I also ran every single one of those 202 miles on such a badly injured leg that I could not walk normally, go down stairs, or (honestly) remember what pain free running felt like. I was about to start the count down to my first marathon and was scared to death that one missed workout would spell certain doom. I still am not sure how the hell I got it done, but I did (and then had to essentially the the entire month of August off. Yeah that was awesome!)

Two major changes in the last year.

-I have a fantastic coach who has kept me fantastically healthy. Clearly I could not do that myself. I don't want to say it out loud but I have not had ANY problems since I began to follow her plan and that is not my norm (my norm is awesome, but chronically injured awesome which basically equals terrible...) 

-A year ago I was very new to long runs. I was under the assumption that they should feel good (and thus, was quite shattered when many were rather awful.) Bottom line: long runs should NOT hurt because you are suffering from a grievous injury. But shit- they DO hurt. Physically, mentally you name it. They can suck hairy ball sacks. Getting a good long run in is awesome but often concerns me because I fear that I have blown my load too early. I'd rather suffer in training and save the good stuff for race day! 

Moving on... 

Race # 1 in June: Quassy! REALLY HOT REALLY BADASS AND FUN.

Number of races run: 2

Number of PR's- HAH. haha. HAH! ZERO homies, ZERO. I did set a 2013 Half PR in (for me) a rather abysmal 1:49 and change. It was a training run, that's my excuse and I'm gonna stick to it!

(and yes, this has me itching to actually "run" a half as I consider this to be one of my better distances. However, it isn't in the cards for this year...)

Number of times I puked on my shoes: Z-E-R-O

Running miles- 155

Cycling miles: 177 plus an hour on the god-damn-useless-torture-trainer

Core: FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL

Times running gave me an adult tantrum: 1 (more on this later...)

Longest run: 20 miles

Number of failed track workouts due to Reginald Doodie: ONE. He is such a shit. Haha get it? 

Number of times I quit running/being an athlete/all the things: 1 (and once again, it didn't take,. I quit then promptly ran 17 like an effing boss.)

Number of times I wore a sundress and compression socks to family dinner: 1
But if I could get away with it this would be my go to outfit.
I'm so hot. It's ok to be jealous.

Take away message for June of 2013: While I might not have the running mileage of 2012 I have more actual hours of working out in the bank. I feel good. The plan we are following for this ultra might be a little left of center but have you met me? So am I. I have complete confidence that the work I'm doing is going to get me to the finish of my longest race to date. 

Other fun facts? I'm focusing my efforts this year on distance vs speed. Last year I did both (train for a marathon! PR in a 5K every week! F**K my legs royally! Cry for my Mom!) I have the 4 on the 4th in the schedule next week and I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I am not going to be able to run as fast as last year. One side of my brain is like "dude, that sucks!" But the logical side of my brain says "you have been training for a freaking 50K. Don't be a hero. Run 8:30's and be cool with it... drink a beer!"So with a pretty huge training week in store we will see what my sprint to non-victory brings. But dudes really? I'm just excited to have a day off in the middle of the week. 

In which I race. For 2 miles. And run 20. And do a Half.

Alternate titles:

-In which I set a Half PR for 2013 which is still about 15 minutes off my good pace.. (keep in mind the ONLY 1/2 I've run so far was Quassy, it was 90, etc etc...)

-In which I use another race as a training run....

-In which I realize it is time to post some pics of me looking cute. Not today though!

-In which I sweat more than I have sweat since Quassy

-Gross, just gross...

You get the idea.

There was a bib with my name on it for Bands on The Run yesterday, a half in Lewiston that got solid negative feedback from everyone I talked to after last year. Since yesterday went fine I imagine they took the feedback to heart and made some big changes (plenty of volunteers at turns- and there were many turns- brightly painted roots on the trails- and there were many roots- plenty of water and Gatorade at the rest stops. All and all I had nothing to complain about.)

I'm not in a racing way right now. I'm training damnit! And I had a long run on the schedule for yesterday that looked better when I added aid stations to the equation. So off I went.  

I got there early and ran 5 miles.
It was only about 70 but was 95% humidity. And rained off and on.
OMG OMG SO GROSS.

I made it to the start barely on time but didn't care that I was in the WAY back of the pack since the goal was to do miles, not race. Honestly, it was not ideal though as my 1st mile was something ghastly like a 9:35 because I COULD. NOT. MOVE. no moving. all walking. grumpy.

In frustration I snuck thru the traffic jam at mile 1 and never looked back. In retrospect I should have counted the people that I passed again.

Anyway. The first 3 miles felt like they took forever. I have no idea why, because other than the sweat running down my bod nothing was wrong. The course was a little strange. Lots of twists and turns, quite a bit of narrow trail with some pretty steep sections. A long stretch of ass boring road around mile 5 which, after a sharp left turn basically went straight UP, prompting the lady next to me to exclaim "FUCK!" which made me laugh out loud.

I wasn't paying a lot of attention to my pace but knew I had locked into my happy go to pace of around 8:30 or so. Whatever. I was coming to a full on halt every 2 miles to drink a bunch of Gatorade (better luck with this than water as I suspected- no leg cramps today.) The final few miles were a study in strange. We did a loop thru a housing development of sorts, in and out of some trail with lots of rocks and hills and THEN into a huge cemetery. "Well THIS doesn't bode well!" I said to a person running next to me. Who was clearly suffering and was in the right place.

I got pretty sick of the whole running in humidity so turned it up a notch and ran the last 2 miles at a 7:35 or so. Big speed. Award winning even... If nothing else I did kind of enjoy my 2 mile "race" and was glad that my legs could kick it up going into what was mile 17&18 on the day.

I finished (my watch read 1:49). I was pleased with that since it was in the middle of a 20 miler! I ate a slice of watermelon, failed at conversation because so much sweat was in my eyes that I couldn't act like a normal human, and then proceeded to run 2 final miles. BLAH!

This is how I felt about my sweaty stinky body! GROSS!!!!!!

I did not puke, quit running or cry. It was an amusing run, a rather unusual course, and a good way to get a long run in. And it was hot. Good for acclimating to summer...?

While this might not be an ideal course if you're a first timer looking for flat, reassuring surfaces it was a fun course for people who love rocks, hills,  danger and death (kidding! I'm referring to the cemetery, haha!) There was a ton of food at the finish (that I sadly did not partake in) and it looked like they had some kind of obstacle course set up to keep the kids entertained. From what I have heard, many improvements from last year.

I'm pleased with my results looking at the day overall. I definitely benefit from the race environment as it pertains to getting my speed up a bit (I know, I know long runs should be slow...) Mentally it is good to know that every long does not have to be at a 9:35 FML pace. Also, there is no doubt that a race situation helps me to avoid the boredom of solo high mileage- I really start feeling the ill effects of that now and then and need people to chase. So all in all a win :-)