Station Road

 

Cuyahoga Valley National Park - Pic taken from Station Road Bridge

My favorite place on earth is the Station Road Bridge area in Cuyahoga Valley National Park (favorite non-Disney or Hawaii place, that is ;-). It's my usual water stop on runs on the Towpath and is absolutely gorgoeous. It is also where some Occupy Wallstreeters attempted to bomb it as part of their protest in May 2012...(http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-01/bridge-bomb-plot/54661638/1
Had they succeeded, they would have had hell to pay from me with messing up my path!

 (Note, the bridge in the picture is actually not the Station Road Bridge...below is the Station Road Bridge...which is where I was standing to take the above picture)

I've run under those metal beams countless times

 

Anyway, I wanted to have some non-cartoon paintings for my Grumpy's exhibit, so I decided to try to tackle Station Road, using the above picture.

 And finally......

Station Road
22" x 28" original acrylic painting on canvas

This might be my Iron Man painting...I don't think I'm going to be able to part with it!

2013 Towpath Half Marathon Recap

The Towpath Half finally took place on Sunday, November 3, after the government shutdown put the kabosh on the original October 13 date.

After spending weeks obsessively checking the weather and planning how to dress, I spent last week watching the forecasted low drop by 1 degree each day the race drew nearer. And this gave me an excuse to find crazy color combinations for my layers!

By some crazy alignment of the stars, my brother's family's schedule was clear and I managed to talk him and the kids into running the 10k. I was super excited since we didn't get to have our usual pre-race slap-happiness for the Air Force this year with the whole traffic debacle. Score!

Sunday actually turned out to be gorgeous! It was a bit nippy in the morning, but I never needed to use the handwarmers I'd bought. My gabbing with my new porta-potty line friend must have warmed me up, (and man was the line long!) My feet and fingers did end up going numb though, and didn't thaw out until about the 3rd mile...so maybe I should have!

And then I saw her.... For weeks I'd been stressing about competing with the "wench" who beat me in the Ten Miler in June (who, coincidentally, stumbled on my review of the 10 Miler...woops..if you're reading this I meant it in the most complimentary way! It means your fast!) I knew she would more than likely be there and I dreaded the idea of running 13.1 feeling like I was being chased or chasing her. Memories of racing RRB to the death  in the 2008 Towpath Half still haunt me. I'll never forget seeing how close he was behind me at the turnaround that day, and imagining him breathing down my neck for the remaining 5 miles...(I won!) We've sworn never to enter the same race ever again. I feared that thats what yesterday would become.

"Run your own race, Tink", I kept repeating to myself. Ha, like I'd buy that garbage for a second.

I'm thrilled. Really.

Anyway, she showed up at the start line and I felt my stomach drop. Grrrrrrreeeeeeeeat. I wished her good luck and she said she wasn't going to be competing with me. This is when the start of an entire 13.1 of delirium began. I thought she meant she wasn't planning on trying to beat me, ya know, to take it easy. It didn't occur to me until the race results came up and I couldn't find hers that she was wearing a 10K bib. We weren't even in the same race!!!!!! Ohhhh... information that would have been so useful to me at the time.

So, the bell went off a min or 2 after 8 and off we went!

I'm especially proud of my tights/sock combo

Mile 1: I pass my nemisis and then she passes me and takes the f off in the first half mile. She put so much distance between us I was actually relieved. There'd be no way to catch her so I could just forget about it. Then 2 more women pass me...After a quick age check, I was cool. They were definitely a group or 2 above me so go on ahead..Knock yourself out by sprinting the first mile dumbasses, (like I'm one to talk!)

Mile 2: My left foot is so numb the ball is starting to really hurt with each step. Please God, please make it just be cold and not an actual problem! A quick Our Father and some begging and I tried to ignore it. Then I attempted to subtract 2 from 13.... that was a fun game. I was pretty sure it was 11 by the 3rd mile.

Mile 3: Man, I can't wait for this thing to be over! Shit, usually this thought doesn't hit me til around mile 8...well this is certainly going to be a fun run. At least my feet and hands have thawed.

Mile 4: Mile 4? Mile 4? Bueller? What do all races have against Mile Marker 4? I never ever see them! Approach signs for the Akron Marathon....ummm...maybe I'm not in the right place afterall...

Mile 5: Get so excited as I reach the clearing where my mom is waiting. I toss my gloves at her as she takes my picture...and she is so intent on getting the shot that she doesn't notice the gloves flying at her.

Proof!

Mile 6: See Aid Station signs....no aid station. Lies! All lies!

Mile 7-8: Feeling good, pass a sign that says "You're running better than the government!" Awesome! Run under the Station Rd. Bridge, which is the subject of my next painting, as I approach the turnaround.

Mile 9-11: And then it allll falls apart. I see at the turnaround that there's an ok gap between me and 2 women, and then a huge one until the next. And none of these women are near my age. I'm pretty sure I'm in 3rd place overall female, 2nd in my division at this point..with no hope of catching Ms. Nemisis. So, I can just put it on cruise, right?

Not so fast, says my lungs. That would be just too easy. Suddenly, I notice that I can't get enough air. My throat feels closed up and I can't take deep breaths. WTF. I can barely breathe. Did I suddenly develop asthma? Ever since September, I have battled off and on with this problem, whether running inside or outside. Never in my life have I had allergy issues so bad than this year.

Also working against me? Friday night I took a knee to the face when my neice and nephew decided to wrestle their Auntie T. 2 minutes after the attack, blood was dripping from my nose and teeth (not that you could tell from looking at me today, hmph)...so I had some decent swelling going on in my nose too!

I got my ass kicked by an 8 yr old

Mile 12: The battle for air continues. I'm so proud of myself for making it through this far. My speed has slowed down to between 7:15-7:40 pace, depending on when I get a good stretch of oxygen. As I finish the. longest. mile. ever., I think happily about how I have almost 2 full months ahead of me until the Disney Half. 2 wonderful months when I don't have to torture myself with 13.1. Oh, race delirium is a wonderful thing.

Mile 13: I see the crowd as I come out of the trees and am ecstatic when I see the clock read 1:36:00! I forgot we started late! Here I was thinking I'd be coming in a full 2 minutes slower. Wahoo!

Finally! Now give me some cookies!

Finish time: 1:36:15, 3rd woman overall! And totally squashed my age group. The woman who came in 1st in my age group finished a full 10 minutes after me. Shweeeeeeeeet!


When they called my name for 3rd place, I was thrilled! I've never placed in the Top 3 overall in a Half before! This was sooo beyond anything I ever expected! I can count on 3 fingers how many times I've happy cried in my whole life, and 2 of them have to do with races....this was one of them.

Annnnnd, my 2008 record for the Half in the 20-24 division still stands for another year. Mwahahahaha!


Yesterday was a good day :-)


Meanwhile......The woman who won overall will be in my age division next year.... a new nemisis emerges!

Birthday Running

Nothing rings in a birthday like 23 miles! I went up to Cleveland to celebrate my birthday, my neice's birthday and a bridal shower....whoow, that's a lot! It was a jam-packed weekend that included running every day, and it was awesome!

First up, running (swimming?) 10 miles on the Buckeye Trail, including the infamous Puke Hill. RRB and I could barely breathe, and I was sure to remind him how much I hated him every step of the way...until he bought me a coconut popsicle... then all was forgiven!

Best popsicle of my entire life

Then, after celebrating the birthdays, I ran with my sister in-law from the party back to her house, and my 8 year old nephew came along too! I mentioned back in the winter that my sister in-law was just entering the crazy world of running, and now she's signed up for her very first 5k this Saturday, the Run for Pierogies (absolutely appropriate for us Polaks!). We're all going to do it as a family, I'm so excited! Hopefully, my mom's achille's issues will let her join us as well, she can always recover after ;-)

Then, for my actual birthday I dragged my mom out of bed for an early morning 9 miler. It was swampy again, but I managed a 7:19 pace, which is my best non-racing pace of the season, so I was thrilled...no wonder I felt like crap!

Make way for the crazy girls!!!!!!!!

The weekend was so much fun, and I can't wait to go back up for an extended weekend for the 4th of July. Hope everyone has a great 4th!

Who needs birthday cake when you can have pie!?

29 and still asking for stuffed animals!

 

Towpath 10-10

I was oddly calm about yesterday's race, the Towpath 10-10, the 2nd part of the Towpath Trilogy.

Other than freaking out about whether or not it would be cancelled due to lightning, my usual butterflies only came on race day, not days before like normal. This really freaked me out because I was afraid I wouldn't run as hard. Thank goodness that wasn't the case!

So, here's the rundown:

The Turtle & I had a wedding reception to attend the night before the race, which made hydrating interesting (I made those hall attendants earn their pay refilling our table's water pitcher!)

I knew I should have brought water bottles in my purse!

My 4:45am wakeup dawned without a drop of rain, so I was very optimistic that the weathermen were wrong.



Teddy did NOT approve of the hour

And the wishful thinking ended as mom and I pulled into the parking lot of Quaker Steak & Lube when the rain began.

About 30 minutes before the race start, I left mom in the car to join the porta-potty line. 10 minutes later, my clothes were completely soaked and I headed off for the 1 mile walk to the start line with the other runners, all of us looking like a line of glazed-eye refugees fleeing a zombie apocalypse (sorry, just started Walking Dead and I have zombie on the brain. I may never sleep again).

Once at the start, the rain came down harder and my teeth started to chatter. I scoped out the crowd and picked out a few girls who looked quick, as well as last year's female winner overall. How do I know which girl won last year? Because the dear old people who put the race together emailed her picture to everyone to let us know that last year's champ was returning. Way to put a target on her back! (Naturally, I checked out her time last year, a 7:06 pace, and immediately lost all hope in coming in 1st overall)

They informed us that the start would be 5 minutes late because 10k and 10mile runners had gone to the wrong race starts. Arrrrgh! But, just when the 30 second countdown began for the bell (yes, they started the race with an old school hand bell), the rain stopped....after all, we wouldn't want to actually benefit from the rain cooling us down during the race! Nay nay.


Mile 1: Feeling good, all the racers are getting into their groove and jockeying for their spot in the lineup to sit at for the rest of the race. And there's mom! Though I hate a lot of back-and-forthing in races, it gave my mom the opportunity to see me 2x before the finish, which was awesome! I pretty much never have supporters out throughout the course, as mom likes to see me at the finish, so this was a really nice bonus! It's amazing how excited you get just to run past someone you know!

Mile 2: FINISH??? What kind of crazy race has you run under the Finish line banner before its over!?!?! And where the heck is mile marker 2? Wait a sec, let's check my Garmin....2.59 mile?! What the..!?! This would be the first of many missing mile markers. 2, 4, 6 and 8 are on a date! (Don't you roll your eyes). Ooh, there's mom again!



Weeeeeeeeee! I hope I can keep this wicked pace up for 8 more miles!

Mile 3-4: I conquered the first pass over the 2 bridges without too much trouble. It didn't sap my energy as I feared it would, so I was pretty relieved. I got into a groove, following the guy in the white tank from the picture above.

Mile 5: As we approach the beginning of the loop that will take us back toward the finish, I look behind me and see....no one. Not a soul. Just like every other race, I always end up running in a little bubble all by myself (which I prefer, so I don't have to hear footsteps of someone dogging me from behind!). Well, minus White Tank Guy (WTG), who I am now pulling ahead of. He looks over at me and grunts out, "I'm dyyyying, have a good run."  

Mile 6-8: I hear grunting approaching. I look to my left and its WTG. "HEY!", I say accusatorily. He looks sheepish as he pulls up next to me and says hi. For about 1/2 a mile we run side by side until he finally asks if I mind him running with me. No prob, I say. And then begin chatting intermittently with him, as he grunts responses...and probably cursing me in his head to just shut the hell up. :-) 

Mile 8: Before we approach the bridges for the 2nd pass, I notice I'm catching up to last year's Top Female winner. I've had her in my sights for the entire race, and I can't believe I am actually going to have to pass her. As I do, I feel like I just stepped into a trap and fear the sprint she may do when we get to the finish. After doing some foggy race math (1+1 is what again?), I figure out that I'm in 5th place for females. But just knowing I was able to overtake last year's champ gives me a boost!

Mile 9: After following WTG's lead and grunting my way up the 2 bridges (it helped! I think he's on to something), I go in for the long home stretch. Where the hell is that finish line!? I notice I'm catching up to another girl and try to decide if I should pick up the pace and try to overtake her. We've still got a ways to get to the finish, and I really don't feel like passing her to just be repassed. Plllleeeease pick up the pace girl, so I don't have to consider this! Damn it, you just slowed down more! Fine, you want me to pass you, you got it!

.25 miles before the finish I'm about to overtake the girl when she looks over, sees me, and takes off like a shot. "F you" I say outloud. Hmph.

Finish Line, I think we've met before

I finish in 1:11:38, only 10 seconds behind the wench who just couldn't let me pass. BUT, that also got me in 4 WHOLE MINUTES sooner than last year's champ! She never did pick it up to beat me! YAY!

Though the race time says I had a 7:10 pace, my Garmin said 7:06 and I'm sticking with that! I had such a great race! I felt good the entire time, I never hit a wall and am so happy! When I had looked up last year's female winner's time and saw that 7:06 pace, I immediately threw out any ideas of coming in top 3 overall...and while I still didn't place in the overall, I did run that pace, which I had no idea I could do for a 10 mile race. I've never run that fast for that long before! I'm ecstatic!

With my award and goosebumps

I ended up placing 2nd in my division, (1st place going to that wench), 5th female overall (257 female runners) and 37th place overall (533 total runners). YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!

1+1= 4

Mom and I headed out for the 1st mom-tourage run of the season last Sunday, and it was a spectacle as always!

There's just something about early mornings....or afternoons, evenings, aw hell, or anytime you get the 2 of us together, that slap happy insanity ensues. Really, you can't take us anywhere.




Mom got into character with my water belt

It really is quite dangerous for me to bring my camera on my runs. Mwahaha!

I had an awesome run too! 7:22 average pace, which is not too shabby for my first balls-out run of the summer. Funny how that used to be a mind-blowing pace to me until last summer when I started spitting out 7:14s! Oh how quickly my impossible-to-reach bar rises. Will I ever quit expecting PRs from myself with every run? I need to find that magic "content" bean somewhere!

Towpath Trilogy: 5 Miler Recap

Sunday was my first race of the season and I was so giddily nervous, I was randomly clapping and squealing sitting in my car while I waited for the start.

Mom didn't seem to have this issue

The weather was almost perfect, upper 50s and partly cloudy, if only we could have gotten rid of the wind...though I hardly noticed it during the race.

My lofty goal for the race was to come in 1st woman overall. My regular goal was to come in somewhere in the Top 3 Overall, or at least 1st in my division. And of course, when I put those kinds of goals in my head, the pressure is on!

I positioned myself right at the front of the pack and did my normal bunny hops to work off my nervous energy (and stay warm). While chatting up my fellow racers (read: giving the Disney Marathon free advertising), I spotted HER.

HER: A fake 'n baked, jet black hair, string-beaned, mutant with the cockiness of an Olympian. She was hanging out at the start line with HIM, an equally cocky, pro-runner-attired mutant.

So much for 1st place.

Runners, on your marks...
"No Line on the Horizon" set on iPod.

Get Set...
Hand over Garmin's 'start' button.

Go!!!!!!!!!!!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Outta my way, bitches!!!!!

The only psychotically grinning runner

Mile 1: Man, there's a whole slew of women passing me. I hope they're just fast starters!

The first part of the race is uphill (a theme of this race) and then we turned onto the Towpath. Even without the leaves on the trees, it is such a pretty race. I love my Towpath!

I used a huge downhill to my advantage (man, is that going to suck coming back up), and passed the remainder of the women who had gotten ahead of me at the start, minus HER.

Mile 1.65: OMG, that's it?! Holy crap. This is turning into the longest 5 miles I have ever run!


Mile 2: Side stitch! Dammit! Really? This little bugger never did left my side the rest of race, har har.


Mile 3: Finally heading back. Wahoo!


Mile 4: Almost there, almost there. Crap! There's that blasted hill! Who maps these courses out, Satan?

Mile 4.75: Oh look, there's HER and HIM. Jogging back. Because they're finished. And wanted to gloat. Where's a gun?

Mile 4.9: There's mommy! Yay! I'm comin', I'm comin'!

Mile 4.97: WHHHHHRR! The middle-aged guy I'd been passing back and forth the whole race goes whipping by. Dammit! Not enough time to catch up.



Yeah...He totally sand-bagged me by letting me pass him that last time

Mile 5: DONE!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!

Finished in 35:35:4, 7:07 pace,  2nd woman overall, 15th place total out of about 365. I'm so happy! And for the first time in my entire running career, I got PAID! I got a very pretty matted picture of the Towpath, and $25 to Vertical Runner, a local running shoe store. Awesome!



Not too shabby for the 1st race of the season, and only 2nd run outside in months!

Oh, and about HER and HIM? HER and HIM both came in as top Female and Male. HER beat me by almost 6 minutes. This got me very suspicious. How is it possible that there are 6 minutes between 1st and 2nd place? So, I googled them and found out she's a track/cross country coach at a University, and he is her student! How is that right? Maybe next time I'll go race some kindergardners on the playground! I hope they feel real proud of themselves, trouncing us normal folk. Lol. (Ok, I'm totally joking around, but come on! So not right!)

And tonight.........I'm signing up for the 2014 Walt Disney World Half Marathon. YESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going the Extra Mile (or 2): USAF Half Marathon Recap

Did you know Half Marathons are 15.02 miles? Actually, if you were one of 500-1,000 runners who were misguided TWICE during the Air Force Half Marathon on Saturday, your half marathon could have been as long as 17+ miles. 15.02 was my lucky distance.

Does the USAF Marathon have a different tool for measuring? Is it a choose your own adventure race? No, no. More like a lack of signs, ill-informed volunteers and just poor planning on the race staff's part.

Let's start from the beginning. Saturday morning dawned with a chilly and foggy 47 degrees.

My family was all bibbed up and ready to start our races. My mom, sister in-law, niece and nephew started out first with the 10k, leaving my brother and I with our sherpa, the Turtle (that's what you get for not participating!) Bro and I were bouncing off the walls waiting for our 8:30am start time, slap happy with excitement. As usual, the Turtle stared at us blearily, with "What did I marry!?" practically oozing from his expression. (hehehe)

Just a taste of what the Turtle had to deal with....keep in mind this is 6 am

A calmer moment

When the gun went off, I flew over the start line, super pumped. I felt amazing, my U2 start song was blasting and I was raring to go!

Mile 1: I was flying! I passed my mom, sis in-law and the kids, who were on the 3rd mile of their race. I was so proud to see them on the course (the kids were the youngest competitors of the 10k!)

Miles 2-3: Feeling great, keeping a 6:30 average pace. I chucked off my arm socks, leaving them Hansel & Gretel style on the side of the road as reminders to my brother that I'm ahead of him (I'm terrible).

Mile 4: Mile 4, mile 4....Buehler?? My Garmin says I'm at 4.25, huh, well I guess I just missed the marker.

Cones have sprouted up, dividing the race and the lead car with the 1st place marathoners are coming at us. Huh. I don't remember ever seeing the lead marathoners in years past.

Suddenly, we approach a T-intersection with a road to the left. The cones are going straight ahead as well as making a curve to lead you down the road. Runners are going in both directions. As the half and full runners are now mixed together, I think to myself a SIGN might be a nice thing to have right now. I spot 2 airmen standing on the corner with a race map and shout to them, "Do Half Marathoners go down this road?" They nod yes, I turn down.

About .25 - .5 miles down the road, I start to notice half marathoners coming toward me, along with the marathoners who were already running down that road. Full marathoners are shouting at us "Half Marathoners, turn around! You're going the wrong way!"

!?!??!?!?!??!

WHAT!??! No way. This is NOT happening to me. I don't believe it. I slow down a little, try to figure out if I should continue on, (because surely they're joking or misinformed), or turn around.

I turn around, cursing in my head and as I approach the airmen at the corner who had misguided me, I notice several runners bitching them out.

Ok, Tink, so you went a mile out of your way, at best. You can make this up. Come on. I keep going in the correct direction, (so I think), and slowly get back in my groove.

What's this? More runners turning around.

AGAIN!?!??!?!

I approach another airman with a map who's talking to more panic-stricken runners. I do the unthinkable. I stop. I ask him where I'm supposed to go, and he helplessly tells me he doesn't know. I ask him if he can show me on the map where we are right now. He can't. But, he says, he can go run down to another airman who has a walkie talkie and can tell us where we need to go.

Can't you just put me in a golfcart or something and take me to the finish? I quit! At this point, I don't have any idea where I am or where I'm supposed to go or how many more times I might get turned around. What the hell is happening here?!

And that is the exact moment where I decided to sign up for the Towpath Half Marathon.

Just as he's about to take off to get help, this beefy half marathoner comes up and starts freaking out on the airman about how much money he paid for this race. Dude, the longer you talk to this guy, the longer it'll take for him to get us help. It's not his fault he wasn't informed!

I calmly put my hand on Mr. Beefy's arm and gently tell him the airman is trying to get us help. Mr. Beefy doesn't like this (or maybe he hates the human touch) and flings my hand off his arm and starts freaking out on me.

Aw hell, I didn't sign up for this.

So, I turn around and just start running back where I came from. Again. I find myself amidst marathoners and the 2:00 pace group for the half marathon. WTF. It's a sea of people (now I know what the Turtle felt like back with the cattle in the Disney Half). I jump up on the grass and start whizzing by people, hearing "Look at her go!" at my back. I recognize other runners I'd been with before also trying to weave thru the masses.

Eventually, I come by mile marker 5. I look down at my Garmin: 7 miles. AHHHH. Really?! I'm that far behind on the actual course? This is insane!

Slowly, reality sinks in and I just plug away. Mile by mile, I make my way toward the finish, all the while joining in on conversations with other runners as we compared what mile we were really on. At one point, I passed the Turtle's sister (who was walking the half) and hysterically scream at her what happened and to make sure she goes the right way. I may or may not have come across as a little possessed.

At mile 11, when my Garmin showed I was at 13.1, I flung my hands up in victory and shouted, "HEY! Where's the finish line?! I'm done!" and everyone around laughed, which started another round of "Hey, what mile are you on?"

At the mile 12 marker, I spot my brother. I sidle up to him and casually say, "Hey, what mile you on?" He blinks confusedly at me and goes, "Uhhh..12? What mile are you on?"
I gleefully say 14.5 and continue on.

Mile 12 is a big, demoralizing horse shoe, where you have to pass the finish to loop around to cross it. It sucks on a good day. But after running the most miles I've ever run, I just wanted to quit right there. However, feeling my brother breathing down my neck, I sped on.

After crossing the finish at 1:51:57, I waited for my brother to cross 2 minutes later, when I triumphantly pointed at him saying, "I ran 2 extra miles and I still beat you!"

My official 13.1 finishing time was 1:34:27...however, that doesn't take into consideration slowing down to figure out where to go and getting caught up in the sea of people. I would have PR-ed had it not been for this, I know it.

My family of finishers!

I spent the remainder of the race, (we had to wait for the Turtle's sister to finish), going from giddy from my runner's high and trading war stories with other halfers, to totally pissed (runner's high worn off), to utterly depressed and crying (It's just not faaaaaiiiir!).

2 days later, I'm back to just being pissed. There's no excuse for this to have happened. I understand that race staff cannot be everywhere at once, however, signs can. What is so complicated about putting up signs directing Half and Full runners on where to go? The USAF Marathon is not cheap, and people pay the money expecting quality. If this were some $20 trail race in the deep woods, I'd understand, but this was a road race on an Air Force Base. There is no excuse. 500-1,000 runners is a lot of people who were robbed of PRs, division placement and just the satisfaction of their true time recorded. (some runners have requested to be DQ-ed so this race isn't on their record)

As soon as I got home from the race, I signed right up for the Towpath Half Marathon in October. Hopefully, I'll still feel just as good and fly thru that race. Towpath, here I come!

Labor Day Weekend Recap

Why couldn't every weekend be 3 days long? Better yet, how about 5 or 6?

After escaping the Hurricane Issac rains that pounded Southern Ohio all weekend, I started out my holiday weekend by conquering Puke Hill with RRB, on Saturday morning (Cleveland only got a little downpour late Saturday night).

RRB tricked me into wearing a water belt ("But you'll look badass!"  I'm such a sucker). I've never worn my water belt before, and one mile in I was already raw and bleeding at the hip. I pulled up my shorts Steve Urkel-style for some extra padding, but not before it left a pencil-erasure sized goudge in my hip. It looks pretty cool!

Nothing says badass like a water belt

We had a blast tackling Puke Hill and ran a total of 7 easy trail miles. It was so much fun being on the trail! Since we were both injured last summer, we hadn't run there since 2010 and it felt so good to be back! Just like old times!



We don't call it Puke Hill for nothing!

I'm not a big fan of down hills

On Monday, my mom and I mom-touraged on the path together. It was even more humid than Saturday and we were both struggling to breath (she even took a picture of steam coming off my sweaty head)! Also making it hard to breath- trying not to laugh at my mom's insane slap-happiness throughout the entire run. Suuure, easy for her to laugh as she cruises along on her bike. Hmph!

But have no fear! I got my chance to laugh! After our mile 8 water stop, my mom fell into the canal. That's right. She rode her bike right off the path, down the steep 8-10 foot drop right into the murky canal. She claims she lost control of her bike while avoiding another bike going by. Whatever the reason, watching her slllloowly ride down into the canal was one of the funniest things I've seen in my entire life!

After she'd wiped off a bit of the mud

Once I established that she wasn't mad and going to blame me ("Mooooooommm.....Is it ok to laugh?"), I about doubled over in hysterics on the path. Luckily, she joined in with me. And it all worked out to her benefit because she got to get her flirt on with a very nice man who helped pop the chain back on her bike, completely ruining his white tshirt in the process.

We finished up our run, and aside from looking like a swamp-thing, a scratch to the knee, and now-muddy newly purchased running shoes, my mom was just fine. And I ran my fastest run EVER! I think when it's humid and I feel like crap through the whole run, I push myself more thinking I must be going slow when I'm really not. Which is how I end up running a 7:13 pace, faster than I've ever run, even in a race! I'm still a little worried about how I'll do for the Half next Saturday, but I am so happy!

We stopped at my brother's on the way back home from the path and I ended up run/walking the 1.5 miles back to my mom's with my neice and nephew (the last .5 miles I walked with my niece on my back). When we got back to my mom's, I tossed them some of my old t-shirts and we finger-painted in the backyard.



My mini Picassos

It was a great weekend!