Adventures with RRB

I knew it was going to be an adventure when RRB texted first thing asking if I'd brought old shoes. That can only spell one thing: MUD. Luckily, I had a beat up pair of Mizunos at my mom's...though one shoe was missing a shoe lace I now have hanging around my rearview mirror. After raiding her sewing basket, I tied 2 old laces together and presto! Like a brand new shoe!

My next race on Father's Day has 4 killer hills in it (ok, not really killer, but any slight incline is torture for me), so I've been wanting to get some hill training in before then. All I have to do is slightly mention that I'm even thinking about agreeing to doing hills and RRB seizes the opportunity. Seizes the opportunity without properly scoping out our path. Ok, he trial-runned our route days before....and got lost. And yet, I still follow him.

We went to Hinckley Reservation in Medina, OH and ran up some monstrous hills, that never really had the equal downhill to go with it. But it was so much fun!

I have no idea why I keep putting my life in this guy's hands

 

Halfway thru the run we climbed the mother of all hills. At the top? This really cool rock/cavern grove full of rock carvings some guy in the late 19th / early 20th century carved into them. Really neat!

 

 

Well, it was really neat the first time....RRB realized we'd made a wrong turn after descending down the mother of all hills (Everest). Passing the carvings the second time was not as fun.

You are NOT my favorite person anymore. (Note hot orange makeshift shoe lace)

After threatening RRB's life, I got over it...until I stepped in a creek. I've mentioned in the past that I don't do trail downhills very well. I pause my Garmin and tend to tiptoe down, fearing for my life...same goes for creek and river crossings.

Step 1: Stare at body of water in confusion. "You want me to cross this!? F&#*!"
Step 2: Scratch head and plan attack...mutter expletives, curse out RRB
Step 3: Tentatively step onto first rock..more expletives
Step 4: Scratch head and plan attack. Curse out RRB again
Step 5: Onto next rock
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until crossed

Yes, I have serious issues.

Anyway, my carefully crafted creek crossing plan failed.

Glad I wore old shoes

It was a great run, we got 10.5 miles in. We had so much fun and I got some monstrous hills in to help with my race. I love being back home!

Friends thru thick, thin, mud, hills, fire alarms, hamster circles and insanity

Towpath Half Marathon Recap

Since I signed up 3 weeks ago, I have thought of little else but this race. I was putting so much pressure on myself to make this my Redemption Race, to make up for those extra 2.02 miles! Though I didn't want to say it out loud, my goal was to place in my division. The Towpath Marathon races are small, with about 1,000 people (there were 1,092 finishers for the half yesterday), so placing is completely reasonable and I've done it before (2008, when I last ran in it).

Annnnd... I really really wanted it. It was super important to me to prove to myself that I could still place since getting married, that married life hadn't washed me up (and yes, I realize I am very fast to a lot of people, but I put unreasonable expectations on myself).

So, no pressure, right?  Thanks to all that and my usual race nerves, I spent a lot of the weekend getting to know the bathroom extremely well. Well, at least I'll be lighter on race day!

Mom and I headed out at 6am, after I gleefully assaulted her with boxing gloves as her complimentary wakeup call.

Morning person

Since the road to the start closed an hour before the race began, we had 90 minutes to kill waiting for the 8am gun (cowbell). We hung out in the car until my twitchiness couldn't take it anymore and we headed to the race start to the tune of.....James Taylor?!?! Really!?! Who's in charge here!?!

As mom and I headed to the portapotty lines, we considered sabatoging the sound system. Thankfully they switched over to techno shortly after.

People were scurrying all over, huddled in their fleeces and coats. It was a crisp 44 degrees, a whopping 8 degrees warmer than predicted. Phew! But I was still reluctant to hand over my coat to mom while I shivered thru the National Anthem.

My Mary Catherine Gallagher impression

I'd positioned myself right at the front of the pack so I didn't have to deal with weaving thru the masses, as most of the course is only on a 12 ft wide trail. The 1/2 and 10k racers start together, and after MUCH pouring over the course map, I knew exactly where I was going. No extra miles this day, not this girl!

3, 2, 1, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

And we're off!

Yes, I always grin like a maniac at race starts

Mile 1: The first 3.5 miles are on the road and a potholed, rutted road at that. I successfully manuevered my way down a particularly rutted and gravely dip that had almost wiped me out in previous years. Score! I was feeling good and finally warming up.

Mile 2: As I approach the first water stop I see a woman topple to the ground. OMG!!! Oh. No. Wait. It's just Flo. Progressive was a race sponsor and life-size cutouts of Flo were everywhere. This Flo obviously couldn't hold her Gatorade.

Mile 3: A short girl in a tank top and tie-dyed socks slowly passes me and cuts in front of me. Let it go, Tink, let it go. It's only mile 3. She'll wear out soon enough.

But, blast it! Once she got in front of me,  Little Miss Thang dialed it down to exactly my pace so we were running with a perfect 10 feet between us. Oh, this is going to get old fast. We made the turn to the towpath and LMT was totally ruining my groove. Rarrrr!

Mile 4: Side stitch! Crap! I knew I should have taken one more gulp of the Powerade before I tossed it. I tried leaning to the left a little as I ran to stretch it out and prayed it would please, please, please go away! 5 minutes later it was gone and I was back to focusing on LMT.

I couldn't help but notice she'd started to slow down. Ha! That's what you get! But I wasn't sure I wanted to pass her so early on, knowing she'd be right on my heels for the remaining 9 miles. However, good sense never seems to be around when you run, so off I went, leaving her in the dust. Then I tossed off my gloves for good measure. That's right. I threw down.

Mile 5-7: Mwahahahaha! Mile 5 and still going the right way! Yes!

Mile 8: Closing in on the turnaround...finally! Time to start thinking about this race being over! The turn-around is a bitch. It's just a cone plopped in the middle of the trail that you scoot around. You have to come to almost a screeching hault to cut the corner without taking yourself out! Definitely screws with your flow.

Mile 8.5: Damn it!!! Gatorade to the eye! That stuff stings!

Mile 9: Heading back, I'm now passing 1/2ers still making their way to the turnaround (and man do they hog up the path, single file people!)
Suddenly some girls shout at me "You're the 5th woman!"

Whhhhhat!??!?!

Awesome!!!!..........oh shit...............

That means LMT and the women behind me have 4 miles to catch up...Dammit! I do not need to be thinking about this! Talk about pressure! I couldn't help but notice at the turn around that LMT was only about 1/4 mile behind me, with 2 women 1/4 behind her. Grrrrrrrreat. Now I get to feel like I'm being chased for the rest of the race.

Mile 10: Get me off this crazy train! I'm tired! The stress of knowing I was so close but also so far from doing so awesome (coupled with it being mile 10 for goodness sake) was wearing me down. Every person that passes me (which aren't many) I frantically check for gender. OMG, just get me to the finish.

Mile 11: I could really go for some chocolate milk. Surely they'll have some at the end. Mmmmmm....chocolatey milk. Yummmmmmmy. Drrrrrrrooooooool....

Mile 12: As usual, the last 2 miles or so I've been running in a bubble with no one really close to me at all. This always happens to me in races. I might have been doing a regular everyday run from the looks of things!

Finally the home stretch comes into view. Thank goodness. Linkin Park switches on and I'm pumped as I obsessively start checking my Garmin every .05 miles. About 1/2 mile before the finish, a woman cheering on the side shouts at me that I'm the 4th woman.

Whoa, really? But I didn't pass any girls since I was in 5th!

As I reached the finish line I spot my mom and sister in-law (yay, she came!) cheering me on and shouting that I was in 4th. Wahoo!

Almost there!

I crossed the finish in 1:35:22:14, chip time. That's a 7:17 pace (though my Garmin said it was a 7:15 pace).

Annnnnnd....I only ran 13.1 miles! Success!


My mom, sis in-law and I snapped some pics and huddled in our coats for the next hour as we waited for the Half Marathon awards ceremony to begin. I stumbled on a fellow AF Half Marathon runner (survivor) and another round of "How far did you go?" followed. Seriously, this game will never get old (he clocked in 14.5 miles).

Runner's high going strong!

When the 25-29 women's age division got called, my breathing stopped as I listened for my name. 3rd place....not me. My heart sunk a little. 2nd place......not me. My head hung low.

And the division winner is........................ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHOOOOOOP!!!!!

I jumped up and ran to get my award (a framed picture of the Towpath) faster than you could blink! I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not washed up after all!

I am so so happy! If you would have told me this would be happening a year ago, I never would have believed you. I am beyond ecstatic!

My loot

And as soon as we got to our car, the heavens opened and it poured all the way until I left for Dayton that afternoon (poor marathoners still had to truck thru that). On my drive home, I passed by a fellow racer who spotted my new towpath marathon sticker on my window and held up his race medal for me to see! I, of course, was wearing mine, so we waggled our medals at eachother before we continued on our way. How cool!

And when I got home, I had a hero's welcome!



Isn't he sweet!!!

And best yet? My mom's coming in tonight to keep me company while the Turtle is away for work. Wooop! I see a week full of DWTS, TLC Channel and mom-touraging!

Oh yeah, and that 1:35:22.....totally qualifies me for Corral A in the Disney. Disney World Half Marathon 2014, here I COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are You Indoors?

Are You Indoors? Yes or No?

I hate when my Garmin watch asks me that! It inevitably leads to the next question of 'Have you moved 100 miles since your last use?', followed by my favorite "Is today's date __ __, ____?", (I know what it really wants to say is 'Are you suuuure you're not inside, you moron?!').

Well, now I know what happens when you answer ‘yes’ to that question: It doesn’t record your distance.

Monday afternoon I flipped on my Garmin, put it on the window sill, like always, to locate the satellites. 8 years later, it was still searching. Ok, fine, I’ll just go through my half-ass stretching routine. No problem. It’ll be done by then.

1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi..ok done!

2 minutes later (I would never have patience for yoga), my watch was asking me my favorite question of whether I was inside or outside. (You'd think it would be used to the trip to Cleveland by now)

Well George (my Garmin is named after my very first running buddy, a 70-something yr old man), technically yes, I am inside. So what the heck, lets enter ‘Yes’. It finished loading instantly! Why hadn’t I ever tried this before!?

Oh, I’ll tell you why.

6:26 minutes later, when I reached the fence where I drop off my water bottle, I looked down to see my pace and noticed my distance was 0 ft. 0ft? 0 FEET!?!?! What do you mean 0 ft, you crazy worthless watch? I just ran that stupid block, dodging goose poop in the sun! Trust me, I remember!

Then it dawned on me. THIS must be what happens when you tell your watch you’re inside. Crap. After 5 minutes of trying to figure out how to let George know I was now outside (I swear the squirrel in the tree above me was snickering), I finally got it up and running. Luckily, I knew that the block I’d just run was .85 miles (though, to be safe I rounded it to .8…ya know, just to be safe ;-) ).

The rest of the run was spent trying to do math. If you ever want to keep a runner busy, make them do simple math. I can't even count the number of times I've tried (and failed) to figure out how many miles I had to go in a Half Marathon when I reached mile marker 11 (runners can't do math while running, I swear, look it up!)

For the life of me, I could not figure out what mileage my watch would have to be at for me to head back home and have 9 miles when I got there. I tried adding, subtracting, rounding, drawing math problems in the air with my finger. It was a lost cause from the start, I might as well have been trying to figure out cold fusion.

Somehow I figured it out and did 9.04 miles. And aside from the watch debacle, I had fun! The leaves have started to change colors  and I got to crunch obnoxiously on the ones that had fallen (and of course I sought out the biggest bunches of them on the ground)

How I miss you Cleveland Metroparks

Anyone else ever have watch/math issues on their runs?

Healing Sucks

I miss running. I miss it as much as insomniacs miss sleep, dieters miss chocolate, Kate Gosselin misses being on TV.

I miss feeling like a rock star when I run. I miss the neighbors gawking at me as I pass their house for the 7^th time in an hour. I miss getting nearly run over by cars in this god-foresaken city with no sidewalks. I miss obsessively checking my pace on my Garmin watch. I miss listening to the songs on the playlist that I only let myself listen to when running (sniffle, its been too long "Dancing With Myself"). But most of all, I just miss feeling like myself.



See how happy I am

 
Over the past 12 years, running has slowly become part of who I am, a huge portion of how I define myself. Without it, I feel a bit lost. One skipped run, and I feel like a fraud. Like one skipped run should  strip me of my title of ‘runner’.

Luckily, with this latest injury, I have been able to ride the bike. Much as I hate it, that little bike has been my savior. If I didn’t have some outlet for my cardio, I’d be a complete basket case by now. While I know biking is definitely not the same as running,  the damage to my speed and stamina should be minimal when this is over. To get my biking to equal my running, I’ve been riding until I get to 800 calories, which is what I burn in my typical 9 mile run. Tricky business since there is the obligatory gym sign of ’30 Minute Limit Per Machine.’ (My trick? Resetting my bike every 30 minutes…or just coming to the gym after 6 when no one’s there).

Except for Theresas

But, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t feel pain just walking any more and I’m planning my first run to be on my beautiful Towpath next weekend. If taking 2 weeks off for my honeymoon (where I did nothing but sit on the beach) didn’t hurt my running, 3 weeks off with the bike should be no sweat.  And I can NOT wait to get back!

And neither can my car, because I sweat 1,000 times more on the bike.




So much for that new car smell