Grandma's Marathon Race Recap

Disclaimer:  I ran Grandma's Marathon as a BibRave Pro, which means my entry fee was covered for me. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador) and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!  

How do I even start to write about Grandma's Marathon?!

Let me first tell you how it ends.  I ran a 2:59:50.

Sub 3.

Dream goal of 2018...achieved.

Ok.  Now that that is out of the way, I'll tell you the long story.  Well, what I remember of it anyways because quite honestly, I don't remember a lot about the last 3-4 miles of the race.

Thursday Afternoon
We left for Duluth Thursday after work so that we could break up the driving a bit.  My husband and two kids were coming with me and if anyone has taken car trips with young kids, you know they can be brutal.  Duluth is about six hours away from our house.  We stopped for dinner at Buffalo Phil's train restaurant in Wisconsin Dells and I had a philly cheesesteak that did not agree with my stomach.  We stopped for the night in Chippewa Falls, WI which was our goal.  We promised the kids a swim when we got there and we were in bed by 10 PM, which is way later than my usual bedtime and I was little freaking out about that.

Friday
We were awake by 7 AM on Friday and slept well.  We headed down for breakfast where I stuffed more carbs in my face and then went to do my 3 mile shakeout run while my husband took the kids swimming.  We were truly in the middle of nowhere so I ran around the parking lot and on two small roads along cornfields in loops until I got 3 miles in.  My legs felt good and springy.

I got back to the hotel and we showered, packed up and resumed driving.  We arrived in Duluth around noon on Friday and went to our hotel.  The hotel staff were all wearing green Grandma's Marathon t-shirts which made me very excited.  They clearly had worked the marathon before and had organized everything around the marathon.  Extra snacks, earlier breakfast, shuttles to the the start, allowing you to say when housekeeping could clean your room...these were all some of the benefits.  Our room was not ready yet but they said they would call so we made the decision to go to the Expo.

The Expo was crowded, but my kids got plenty of free samples and I got my packet.  I really wanted to be at the talk with Carrie Tollefson and Kara Goucher but I also did not want to deal with taking my family back to the expo with me later in the day.  My husband said we had to eat at Grandma's restaurant so we went there for lunch.  I had a chicken pot pie that was yummy.

After lunch we opted to go to the Duluth Children's Museum which was great because it was pouring rain (it rained most of Friday), the kids could run around and I didn't have to be on my feet.

We went to the Oiselle-organized dinner at 5 PM at Va Benne Cafe.  Oiselle did a great job having a bunch of activities for runners during marathon weekend.  I probably would have gone to many more of the activities if I hadn't had my family with me so I was glad we were able to go to the dinner.  They had yummy pasta.  I spent most of dinner trying to keep my kids entertained but chatted a bit with some other Volee.  We ditched out early though because the kids were super antsy by the time dinner came.  There was a cute ice cream shoppe near the restaurant that we went to afterwards and then we did a walk along the lake, even climbing down to test the waters of Lake Superior.

Everyone was good and tired by then so we headed back to our hotel.  I organized my stuff for the next morning (race morning).  The weather forecast all week was showing thunderstorms during the race and it was unchanged as of Friday night.  I had brought a throw-away pair of shoes and socks as well as a jacket, tights and long-sleeve from my throwaway clothes pile at home.  I had grabbed a poncho from the stash at the hotel and my plan was to wear all of that and keep my race clothes dry and change into my race shoes and socks at the last minute.  I got my watch ready and it was blinking showing me there was an updated.  I shrugged and clicked accept and the watch began updating.

I prepped my food as well.  I brought my picky oats for race morning but didn't bring milk for them so I made them into overnight oats using chocolate milk that we were given at the race expo.  I prepped my Gen UCan and some nuun in my handheld for on the course.  I also had another throwaway water bottle with Beachbody energize - which was what i was using in the mornings before many of my workouts.  I had gotten some Gatorade Endurance the week of the race in the mail that I was using a lot because I liked it but I was a little nervous to use it during the race since I hadn't had the opportunity to test it during a long run.  (I'll be reviewing Gatorade Endurance soon on the blog!).  I did drink a lot of Gatorade Endurance all day on Friday.

I was in bed by 8:30 PM on Friday night.  My legs did not feel good.  I was a little panicked that we had done too much on Friday (even though I felt like I was good about not using my legs much).  My calves in particular felt really crampy and tight.  I rolled them out before bed and prayed for the best.

Saturday - Race Day
I slept beautifully - until about 4:45 when I could hear others in the hotel moving around.  I was fine with this because my alarm was set for 5 AM.  I checked the weather and it was like a gift from God.  All of the rain had disappeared from the forecast.  WHAT?!   Like when does that ever happen?!

I got dressed.  I was wearing my Oiselle distance shorts (these are always my race day shorts) and crop.  I had to wear my BibRave singlet as a condition for getting my marathon fee covered by them.  Honestly, I was a little sad that I couldn't just wear my Oiselle crop but the singlet is a Rabbit tank, of which I have several and like so I knew it wasn't going to be an issue.  I brought along both my Balega blister resist and Balega silver socks for the race in my gear check bag.  I slapped on a temporary Oiselle tattoo on my bicep and started to braid my hair.  It took me three tries to braid my hair because my arms were shaking so much.

I realized that my spray deodorant sample was actually NOT a deodorant - just an antiperspirant so I grabbed my husband's deodorant to wear for the race.  I then ate my picky oats.  I was not hungry so eating the oatmeal was a challenge but I ate it all.  I grabbed my three hydration bottles and my pre-packed gear bag....and then my son woke up.

NOOOOOOOOO.

I laid with him a bit and then went to the bathroom.  In that time, he had crawled in bed with my husband.  I prayed that he would fall back asleep so that my husband wouldn't have to get up so early, gave everyone kisses and then left my hotel room.

The lobby was jumping with all the runners and then the shuttles came.  I boarded the first one and we were off to the start!

It seemed to take forever to get to the start.  Of course, all the while, you are thinking, "Oh wow.  I have to run all of this back."  We approached the starting area and then....kept going!  All of us on the bus were looking at each other like, "What is going on?"  Finally the bus driver stopped and said, "I think I missed the drop off so I'm just going to let you off here."  Um...yes.  Just what a bunch of marathoners want to do - walk extra before the race! The extra walk did let us see two deer though, which I took as a good omen since I was constantly running into deer during my training runs!

We got to the start and I got into the porta potty line when I see Jana from MN.  I met Jana at the Icebreaker relays.  She came over to say hi, and told me to run fast.  After I used the bathroom, I saw some Oiselle singlets by the med tent and it turned out to be Kelly and Carrie from WI, whom I follow in Instagram.  So I went over there and gave them big hugs.  Carrie also used Hanson's and all of us were going for PRs.  (Spoiler - all of us got PRs!).  Carrie also told me to go for the sub-3.  I changed into my race shoes and got my gear bag situated.  It was 7:30 and I was getting nervous so I just headed for the corrals.

Once I got in the corral, I saw Amy from BibRave which was exciting as we had been following each other's training on Instagram as well.  We took a pic and she also told me to go for the sub-3.

I ended up lining up at the 3:05 pace sign.  I was surrounded by smelly guys.  I mean, I just do not understand why guys have to be smelly BEFORE THEY EVEN RUN.  I ditched my sweatshirt with a few minutes left.  The air was cool.  It was a great day to run a marathon.  I got my watch ready to go, made sure my shoes were ready, and did my Kristina Power Pose. 

The horn went off.

Here we go!!!

The Race
Miles 1-3
I started running in the big 3:05 pace herd, and immediately got boxed in by the smelly guys.  I was not running my pace - it felt slow - so I looked down at my watch.  Why the hell is the pace in the 4s?!  I kept going with the guys and then my watch beeped.  "Why is my watch beeping??"

OMG.  It is showing me kilometers.  It must have reset to defaults in the updates.  NOW WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!

After a brief panic, I decided to just stay with the 3:05 pace group for the first few miles.

At the mile mark, the pacer yelled out the split.  7:02.  I didn't feel great...I definitely was still all nerves so I decided to stay with the group even though I felt like I was adjusting my stride to run where I was running.  It was very crowded.

At the second mile mark, the pacer yelled out the split:  6:56.  At this point, I decided that I could not run any more with this group.  The stride adjustment was driving me bonkers so I went around them to the far outside.  I saw a group of two women and one guy shortly up ahead.  I caught up to them and could run comfortably.

[From here out, I am going to give you mile splits but I didn't know these during the race.  These are my splits from my watch which I was able to see after I uploaded the run into Strava.]

The women were chatting up a storm.  I liked them because they were discussing their pace splits at every mile so during the race, I could kind of realize where I was.  I was doing math in my head by 7:00 miles - so I knew roughly where I was at every mile based on the overall time elapsed.  As we were approaching mile 3, I knew that I wanted to be under 21 minutes.  Mile 3 was another 6:56.

Miles 4-6
The next miles were easy.  Just rolling along.  The course and weather were beautiful.  I took a cup of water at every aid station I came upon and just stayed with my pack of 3.

Mile 4: 6:55
Mile 5: 6:50
Mile 6: 6:51

Miles 7-9
At some point, we went under the train overpass.  I don't know what mile this was at but the image is burned in my brain because it was like something in a movie.  SO PRETTY.  I was waving wildly at the spectators yelling at us from the train.

I still felt very calm and comfortable at the pace we were going.  This was all going great with my plan to flow through the first half.  I was still running with the 2 women and the guy.  We had other people kind of come in and out of the group but I don't remember anyone else but the main 3 because I just stayed right behind them.   At one point, I think it was around mile 8, I yelled out, "Oh my god you can smell pine trees."  It was the freshest, cleanest scent ever.  Nobody said anything.  They just looked at me like I was insane, likely because up until that point, I did zero talking.

All along these miles, the road was tree lined and so very green.  It was very foggy...there were sporadic views of the lake that were starting to occur and you could feel them before you could see them.  The air temperature would drop and a very cold breeze from the lake would blow.

Mile 7: 6:56
Mile 8: 6:50
Mile 9: 6:52

Miles 10-12
I started to realize that I wanted to be around 4:16/km on my pace watch.  I continued doing math using 7:00/mile as a guide and comparing my watch elapsed time to that benchmark.  The overall time was under the benchmark so I knew I was running sub-7 miles, but I didn't know how far under I was.  We had caught up to Erin, wearing a black Oiselle crop.  She said, "This looks like a strong group" when we came upon her and she joined us for a while.  I could not believe how easily she was talking.

Mile 10: 6:42
Mile 11: 6:52
Mile 12: 6:45

Mile 13
I remember getting to the halfway point and thinking, "That wasn't too bad."  At this point, I was running with Oiselle Erin and one of the original women I was with in the pack.  The two of them were chatting it up and I was just behind them, mute.  I learned that the other woman was 26 and ran for South Dakota State.  Erin was 43 and ran for Ohio State.   She was talking so much....it was fun to listen to but I was still mute.

Mile 13: 6:35.

[My half marathon time was 1:30:14.  When I got to the half point, I saw the clock by the mile marker at 1:30 and thought, "Looks like I am not breaking three today...but I am good with where I am at...try to stay ahead of the 3:05 pace group."]

Miles 14-16
Erin and I ended up by ourselves for a bit and she was still talking.  She asked me what my PR was and I responded, "3:11" and she said, "Woah! You are definitely ahead of that right now, but as we know, anything can happen in a marathon."  I was responding to her talking in one word phrases but not really talking, because I was starting to feel like I was working.  She was running so effortlessly - it seriously helped to have her and I am grateful for the miles that I ran with her.  At some point, she picked up the pace and I didn't trust myself to stay with her.

Mile 14: 6:33
Mile 15: 6:45
Mile 16: 6:40

Miles 17-20
At this point, I was on my own.  South Dakota woman was with me for part of it but I saw her duck into a porta potty and then didn't see her again.  I started thinking that I was going to pass Glensheen Mansion soon....but that came later than I was expecting.  When I did pass it, I managed to mumble, "Stay Sexy, Don't Get Murdered" like I wanted to but I was hurting.  Somewhere in this block I also threw my handheld water bottle away because it felt so heavy.  I drank about half of it along the first half along with the waters I was grabbing.  I think I ended up throwing a gel away as well.  I was taking gels every 5 miles, beginning at mile 5.  At mile 20, the thought of taking a gel made me nauseous so I skipped that one.

Mile 17: 6:43
Mile 18: 6:48
Mile 19: 6:43
Mile 20: 6:54

Miles 21-24
I don't remember a lot of this section.  I remember passing the trolls lined up and thinking of my WI teammate Ali who told me about them and smiling.  I remember passing the Oiselle cowbell corner who cheered for me (you could see some of my crop under my singlet).  I remember a lot of people cheering for me yelling "Go Oiselle".  I remember slapping two kids high fives after a water station.  I remember inhaling more than one cup of water through my nose.  I remember wanting to stop running.   I remember some lady saying, "You're almost to the top of Lemon Drop Hill."  At this point the arch of my left foot was throbbing with every step.  I remember thinking that I was giving myself a foot injury.

Mile 21: 6:52
Mile 22: 6:52
Mile 23: 6:55
Mile 24: 6:51

Miles 24-Finish
Around Mile 24, I looked at the elapsed time on my watch (my KM paces were so varied that they weren't that helpful to me.  Some kms were 4:06; some were 4:22) and realizing that I could maybe sub3 if I just kept going.  I was hurting so so bad, my left foot was throbbing with every step, and I knew I looked terrible because everyone on the crowd was making comments about "Yeah girl - keep digging keep digging"...."that is grit"...."yeah - dig deep - you got this".  I truly felt like everyone was cheering for me.  I was mostly by myself, but still would pass people.  One of the hallmarks of the Hanson plan that people talk about on the Facebook group is the craziness of passing people at the end and it's true.  [I also have a bunch of the official race photos and I look TERRIBLE.  I could be on a "Be Brave Get Ugly" shirt any day.] I saw the elapsed time at mile 25 and still thought I could do the sub 3 so I kept pushing.  As I made my way around the corner to the finish, I could hear the announcer saying, "Can these people get a sub-3? Come on! You can do it - the sub-3 is yours" and then I saw the finish clock turn 3:00.  I was sprinting as fast as I could and my bottom left foot was on fire.  I crossed the finish and shut off my watch.  My watch said 2:59:51 but I didn't really know what my official time was.  I immediately felt woozy and crashed into some scaffolding when I felt a bear hug behind me, holding me up and then saw a wheelchair to my left.  I said, "I really do not need a wheelchair" and they trusted me but told the person holding me to keep walking with me.  She walk/held me through the finish chute and by the time I got to the t-shirts, I felt like I was ok.  I started balling and turned around and gave her a huge hug to say thanks and she was so kind and said, "Oh you're welcome sweetie."

I continued going through the finish area in a daze, sobbing, but I did stop and let them take my photo because one of the things I am sad about from Boston 2016 is not letting anyone take my finish photo.

Then I heard "MAMA!!!!!".  I knew it was my daughter's voice but couldn't see her.  She kept yelling and finally I spotted them.  My husband pointed me in a direction to meet them and I collected all my food, gear and sad down on a statue of a propeller and trying to stop crying.  My family caught up to me and my husband said, "You did it!!!!  Sub 3!!!!!"  I looked up and said, "OMG I DID?!" and he had his phone out to the tracker which had my official chip time at 2:59:50.  I immediately started crying again, which of course freaked my kids out.  I still did not quite believe it though.

I was freezing so my husband created a changing area with the post-run blanket so I could change out of my shorts and into my tights from my gear bag.  I changed into my flip flops.  Then he took pics of me and made me ring the PR bell because he's awesome like that.

I said that I wanted to check my results in the "official results" tent because part of me still didn't believe that I got the sub-3.  We headed over there and I got the official print out that I indeed had gotten it.  More crying.

I turned on my phone, which was buried in my gear bag, and oh my goodness the text messages were awesome.  My friend Bettina watched it online and posted this screen shot of the finish.

I checked Facebook and the Birdmachine CHI relay team had a whole thread tracking me. More crying.

Mile 24:  6:51
Mile 25:  6:47
Mile 26:  6:56
0.35 miles: 6:40

Second Half Marathon: 1:29:36.  NEGATIVE SPLIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I mean, I can't even.

I was legit in a daze during the last miles.  Later on in the day, we drove past the course and my husband mentioned something about me running here and I said, "I don't think we ran here" and he looked at me like I was crazy.  He showed me the whole route of the last miles and none of it looked familiar.  Usually I also see/hear my family near the finish and I didn't see them at all.  My husband showed me a video he took of me finishing and they were really loud.  I also had to laugh at this video because in my head, I was sprinting and watching myself finish on video it looked more like a wandering drunken crawl to the finish.  I know that I left it all out there though - which was my goal!!

Thank you Duluth.

Thank you to every single person who told me to go for it.  Thank you to everyone for your support.  Thank you to my husband and kids who cheer me on every day.  It takes a village!

Next goal - OTQ baby.

I posted a race review on bibrave.com - check it out here.  Click here to see my UNOFFICIAL results posted on Athlinks! I can't wait for Athlinks to update my PR!

Grandma's Marathon Training: Week 7 Recap

Disclaimer:  I am running Grandma's Marathon in June as a BibRave Pro, which means my entry fee was covered for me. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador) and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!  

I ended up going to see my primary care provider about my cough last Monday evening.  My cough was not getting any better and was hurting my chest.  I felt wheezy during Monday's workout.  She diagnosed me with acute bronchitis and gave me a cough syrup with codeine to help me sleep at night, prednisone and an albueterol inhaler.  I wish I could say that all of this was a magical cure all but the fact of the matter is, I am still hacking away, although mostly without the tight feeling in my chest.  Argh.

Regardless, I had a consistent, good week of training.  At one point during my tempo run, I actually felt giddy because I could just feel my body getting in shape.  I do really like the process of marathon training, even on days when I would rather not get out of bed (ahem, last Friday morning).

Week 7 is the first week that a "long" run appears on a Saturday vs. an "easy" run.  These are slightly different in the Hanson's method as the chart below shows:

An "easy" run should be between 8:22 and 9:22 and a "long" run is 30-60 seconds faster than that at 7:22 - 8:52.  I generally fall in the "long" run range for my "easy" runs so I am not worried about this.  Doing my easy runs at an "easy" pace is something I am always working on!

I also decided that I am just going to train at my #dreambig goal pace (6:52/mile) for as long as I am feeling good.  My current speed workout pace of 6:12 is in the middle of the range above so that is fine.  I have been doing my tempo at 6:47/6:48.  I recognize that of course this is easy when my tempo run is 5 miles but I also think that I would be disappointed with myself if I don't try to train to this level and see what happens, of course being attuned to injury risk and overtraining signs.

I ended the month of March with 147.74 miles, which is the highest monthly mileage I have had since September 2017!

Sunday, March 25

Plan Says:  Easy 4 miles

What I did:  Easy 4.1 miles. 34:25 (8:21 avg pace)

Monday, March 26

Plan Says: 8 x 600, with 400 meter recovery in between and 1 mile warm up and cool down

What I did: The workout.  I overslept so had to leave work a bit early to get this in before my daughter's bus arrived home.  This was challenging for me because I was really having a lot of coughing attacks and felt like I couldn't breathe clearly.  I also picked a route with a slight hill, which meant that one way, I was running slightly downhill with the wind at my back and on the other way, I was running slightly uphill into the wind.  You can see in my splits below that there was about a 8-12 second difference between these two routes.  Generally, all of the downhill splits were in line and all of the uphill splits were in line with each other.

My goal time for 600m (0.37 miles) is 2:18.

1.0 mile warm up, 8:11.8 (8:10 avg pace)

1.   Downhill, with wind:  2:09.4 (5:44 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (8:26 avg pace)
2.   Uphill, against wind:  2:17.7 (6:12 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (9:12 avg pace)

3.   Downhill, with wind: 2:12.2 (5:50 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (9:13 avg pace)
4.   Uphill, against wind:  2:18.8 (6:15 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (8:49 avg pace)

5.   Downhill, with wind: 2:08.2 (5:45 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (8:44 avg pace)
6.   Uphill, against wind:  2:16.5 (6:06 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (9:17 avg pace)

7.   Downhill, with wind: 2:04.1 (5:35 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (8:49 avg pace)
8.   Uphill, against wind:  2:16.7 (6:09 avg pace)

1.65 mile cool down, 14:11 (8:36 avg pace)

Tuesday, March 27

Plan Says: Off

What I did: Off

Wednesday, March 28

Plan Says: 5 mile tempo, 1 mile warm up and cool down

What I did: TEMPO! I felt really good this morning.  I chalked it up to the drugs and getting a day off.  I felt good during the tempo, not as jittery as last week and my splits were a little more even.

1.15 mile warm up, 9:28.1 (8:14 avg pace)
5 mile tempo, 34:04 (6:48 avg pace)  Mile splits:  6:51, 6:45, 6:50, 6:49, 6:46
1.5 mile cool down, 12:22 (8:15 avg pace)

Thursday, March 29

Plan Says: easy 4 miles

What I did:  easy 4.7 miles.  38:16 (8:09 avg pace)

Friday, March 30

Plan Says: easy 6 miles

What I did:  6.2 miles, 51:11 (8:15 avg pace)
It was difficult to get out of bed.  I had book club the night before which meant I had two glasses of wine which, as always, meant my sleep was not great.  One of these days, I will just give up drinking wine.  Today is not that day.  I was proud of myself for showing up to this run anyways!

Saturday, March 31

Plan says: long 10 miles

What I did:  10 miles, 1:21:10 (8:07 avg pace)
The forecast for Saturday was not looking good.  Rain rain all day starting EARLY.  I usually allow myself to sleep in on the weekends (read: wake up at 6 AM instead of 4:30-5 window) but I REALLY did not want to run in rain so I kept my early alarm and got.this.DONE!  No rain for me!  I felt good for all but the last mile of this - I definitely felt tired for that.

Mile splits:
8:14 / 8:12 / 8:19 / 8:08 / 8:17 / 7:51 / 7:59 / 8:03 / 8:02 / 8:02

Weekly Total

Plan says: 38 miles

What I did: 40.04!

Last Week Before Marathon Training Officially Begins!

Disclaimer: I received a WHITE pair of Under Armour HOVR shoes that I mention in my Race Recap below to test as part of the BibRave Pro ambassador program. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Last week was CRAZY in that it snowed every day and we now have tons of the white stuff to deal with.  3 of the 4 non-race runs that I did last week were in unplowed snow with yaktraks.  Snow running is QUITE a workout!

Also, I had my first race of 2018 on Saturday - the Pettit Indoor Marathon Relay!

I continued work on my WorkIn28 challenge - finishing off week 1 and moving onto week 2.  It has been more challenging for me to fit it in during week 2 (because Olympics), but I am still trying to make it work.

So here is last week's mileage recap with my race recap:

Sunday February 4
0 miles
SLEDDING!  This was a workout.  The sledding hill near our home is called "killer hill" for a reason.

Monday, February 5
0 miles
This is just me being lazy.

Tuesday, February 6
4.01 miles, 33:30 (8:22 avg pace)
First of the snowy runs!

Wednesday, February 7
4 miles, 33:29 (8:22 avg pace)
Kind of funny that both Tuesday's run and this run were one second apart.  I hit up the treadmill after my kids were in bed for this one - so, lots of button pushing.

Thursday, February 8
3.11 miles, 25:50 (8:19 avg pace)
Another night run! SO SO Sloppy with the snow/slush factor.

Friday, February 9
5 miles, 41:51 (8:22 avg pace)
My kids had a snow day from school which was ridiculous all things considered.  They ended up going to my MIL's house and I worked from home, which meant I could take advantage and run in the middle of the day.  It was so sunny and pretty out but this run was CHALLENGING because I decided to try to run around the pond on an ungroomed trail.

Saturday, February 10
8.39 miles, 58:00 (6:55 avg pace)
Indoor Marathon Relay time!

This was my third year participating in this with the Oiselle teams.  This year, Oiselle women from MN and IL came to WI to join us so it was extra large and in charge.   I had zero expectations for this race because as you know if you've been reading for the last four months, I have done nothing but generally easy runs.  I decided that I was going to enjoy myself, and run by feel.  I did not wear a watch even.  (Partially this is because my Garmin doesn't work well indoors and last year when I wore a regular Timex, I forgot to start/stop it half the time.)

The strategy for this is always the same - each of 4 relay runners runs a total of 12 "800s".  This is in quotation marks because each segment is actually two laps around the track, which is 886 meters total.  In the previous times I have participated in this event, I have always been runner #1.  This year, I was runner #3.

It is challenging to do because you aren't running long enough to take advantage of any warm up - you run your two laps and then stand on the sidelines and watch your teammates run a total of 6 laps and then you are up again.  There is NO space to continue jogging and you have to pay attention so that you can move the lap counter from ankle to ankle.  It is CRAZY.  And fun.

The other difficult thing is that the relay is in the afternoon and they have an indoor half marathon race in the morning.  There is maybe 20 minutes of clear track in between those two events so you don't get a ton of time to warm up either.

While I opted out of wearing a watch, I did wear my Under Armour HOVR Sonic shoes (see disclaimer above) to try to capture mileage and splits that I could analyze afterwards.  I ran as many warm up laps with my teammates that I could until they literally kicked us off the track.  My shoes tell me that this was 2.15 miles at 8:20 pace.

Then it was go time.  I felt good running my first few laps and I had no idea how fast I was running.  It felt like I was running fast, and I estimated that I was in the 6:30/mile pace range.  One of my teammates thought I was running faster than that so she had her husband, our official lap counter, time my 5th (or was it 6th?!) segment and he had me at 5:50 pace.  What the what?!  Admittedly, I ended up neck and neck with another woman during that segment and she was definitely making me work for my laps, but I was still pleasantly surprised.

Obligatory race photos where I look like a dinosaur:

Hello pain face!

Our team finished 5th women's and we nailed the sub 3 total time: 2:54:27.26 (6:40 avg).
My shoes show me at the following avg paces for my 12 segments:
5:45, 5:52, 5:54, 7:42, 5:57, 5:59, 9:24, 5:53, 6:15, 6:10, 6:07, 6:06

Obviously there are two outliers there - looking at the data charts for the 7:42 lap, it looks like my pace tanked at 2:00 in for some reason and it was a little longer than the others.  This makes me think that I kept moving immediately after my ankle tracker was removed for a bit, which brought my pace down.

For the 9:24 split, again it was a little longer than the others, making me think it counted some of my post-segment walking into the split.

What other fun stuff can I tell you from the data from my shoes....

Max Pace, Avg Cadence, Avg Stride Length for each segment:
1 - 5:30, 196, 114.8
2 - 5:40, 194, 113.2
3 - 5:41, 194, 110.0
4 - 5:41, 186, 106.0
5 - 5:41, 194, 111.9
6 - 5:47, 194, 108.8
7 - 5:53, 184, 103.3
8 - 5:41, 194, 109.5
9 - 6:01, 190, 108.9
10 - 5:53, 190, 107.2
11 - 5:55, 190, 108.3
12 - 5:48, 190, 110.7

Pretty cool data, right!? I will be posting my official review of these shoes later this week but I couldn't resist sharing this early.

I also am pleasantly surprised that I still have some speed!  I mean, after just running 25ish miles/week for 4 months at a comfortable pace.  This makes me excited to build up some actual endurance/speed fitness in the coming weeks.  All in all, this event was a great way to end my base mileage phase.

W1D1 Marathon Training was yesterday (Sunday, Feb 11).

Weekly Total: 24.5 miles

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Race Report: Macklemore, Phlegm, Wind and a new PR

Disclaimer: I’m promoting Milwaukee Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Prep for this race was not what I wanted, and this was entirely my fault for saving too much of it for the night before.  I got the kids to bed and THEN started to think about all the stuff for the race.  I knew what my outfit was going to be, so I got that all squared away.  I made my Gen Ucan and Nuun bottles for the next morning, and pre-set the coffee maker.  I downloaded Macklemore onto my iPod for the car because I was obsessed with the Glorious song, which after yesterday, I am even more obsessed with.

And then I started freaking out about parking because I fell down the rabbit hole of social media.

I had planned on getting up at 5 and moved it back to 4:30AM after that.  The race start was 6:30.

I had wanted to go back through my running journal and do some of the mental exercises like I did for my marathon but I was tired.

I wanted to hydrate a lot more on Saturday but I didn't.

My legs felt tired Saturday night which also put me into a bit of a panic.  I realized that I didn't really ever sit down on Saturday because I was busy with the kids.  I foam rolled and used the R8 roller and did legs up the wall to Jasyoga's race day meditation.  They still didn't feel great.

So I took a shower and went to bed.

I was glad that I had a week of good sleep because Saturday night's sleep was not great.  My son woke up a bunch so when I fell back asleep it was that light, dream-filled sleep.  I had set two alarms for 4:30 because I was nervous about not hearing one, which translated to this horrible dream where I woke up at 6:10 and had to have my husband drive me to the start.

BUT.  I did wake up at my first alarm at 4:30.

I was tired.  And groggy.  And did not feel like running a race.

AT.ALL.

Like if I had had to do a workout that morning, I would have shut the alarm off, rolled over and went back to sleep.

But I had a race.  A GOAL RACE.  Suck it up buttercup.

I put my clothes on, my contacts in, brushed my teeth and started to french braid my hair.

I went downstairs and was grateful that I had at least set everything out on the table before I went to bed. I loaded my GUs in the back pocket of my shorts, packed a few plastic bags because it was raining, poured my coffee and grabbed a banana.  The wind was howling and it was pouring so I wrote my family a note:  "If the weather is still terrible please don't worry about coming to the race!" Then I went out to the car.  I hooked my iPod up and started listening to FloRida, which is usually my pump up song.

Then, only then was I like, "Let's do this."

As I was driving to the race, drinking my coffee and eating my banana, I started get super emotional, which has become a theme on races where I do well.  I took this as a very good sign.

Listened to Macklemore's Glorious a few times.  More tears to my eyes.  (Seriously.  You do not want to drive to races with me.)

After all my freaking out about the parking situation, I found a (free) street spot right near the start.  It was maybe 5:10 AM.  Race start was 6:30.  It was drizzly out so I stayed in my car for a bit and then I grabbed my umbrella and started walking over to the start area.  I had brought along a Picky Bar and an RX Bar for breakfast but I did not feel hungry at all.  

It was very dark out and they had some lighting available at the start and tons of porta potties.  I took advantage of the fact that NO ONE was there yet and used the porta potty.  I was checking my phone about meeting up with some of the Oiselle WI people and sat down on the curb.   I chugged my Gen U Can and started sipping on my Nuun.

I asked several people about the start line because it seemed odd that they finish tables were being set up in the start area.  I knew from the map and course description that the start and finish were at the same point but were they really going to have all of us line up with water tables, banana tables, etc?!  Yes.  Yes they were.  

I went to the bathroom again. 

Then I met up with Amanda, a Oiselle WI team member, who had planned on running the half but got sick and was there to support her husband who ran his first marathon!  We met up with our Oiselle WI leader, Sheila, and took a picture.  

I changed my shoes and socks and gear checked my stuff.  I left a long sleeve on as a throwaway with my crop top underneath and my shorts.  After some indecision, I decided to wear my Boco Gear BibRave visor because I do love it.  I also wrapped my BibRave Buff around my wrist to use as a snot rag if I had to because I was still dealing with snot and phlegm.  This is the first time I have tried doing this and it worked VERY well.

Anyways, back to the start.  I felt like I needed to use the bathroom again so Sheila and I got into the long line and used the bathroom again.  

It was 6:25 AM when I got out of the porta potty.

Thus, I started to snake my way through the starting area to try to get closer to the front but the narrow fencing and all of those finish chute tables were not making it easy.  I resigned myself to just starting in the back.  I was behind the 2:30 half marathon pacer group.

I never heard a starting gun or anything but I did see runners ahead of me starting to run.  It seemed to take forever and then finally I was at the start line and hit start on my watch.

I knew I would want to gun it around all of these people but I kept my wits about me and tried to run easy.  Luckily after the start line the streets widened so it was not difficult to stay to the edge and pass.  That is basically all I did for the first mile.  My first mile beeped in at 6:45.  I was pleased with this because it felt easy.

I passed the first water spot and grabbed a cup because I did feel thirsty.  Shortly past the first stop there was a brass band which also made me smile.

Then we made our way from streets to the paved trail through Veteran's Park.  I passed a man with a visual impairment who had a guide and the guide was providing these very rich descriptions of the scene for him.  They were beautiful.  It helped put the day in perspective for me.  How lucky we were to be running along beautiful Lake Michigan!

My watch beeped in again and I was a little fast.  6:40 for mile 2. I was hot in my LS so I took it off and carried it because it seemed weird to throw it in the middle of a park.  6:45 for mile 3.  I hocked the first of many lugies.  (I was cursing phlegm the whole race.)

At this point we were back onto the street and I knew I was going to see some Oiselle WI women around mile 4.  I was still carrying my shirt so I said "Can you guys take my shirt?!"  I was really excited to see them and their cowbells.

Mile 4 was 6:31.  

The big hill in the course was coming up.  There was a woman on the side who was providing this awesome narrative for me about crushing the hill.  "Girl you are showing that hill who is BOSS."  I mean I can't even begin to thank her for getting me up that thing because this was when the dark thoughts were coming in.

Mile 5 was 6:45.

At the top of the hill I saw my sister and her dogs.  She was confused because I had arrived there later than I told her I would be there because I hadn't anticipated starting in the way back.  I didn't feel great there so I barely talked to her but she ran on the sidewalk with her dogs for a bit and then said SEE YA!

Mile 6 was 6:48.

We then ran through the east side.  There were a few people out cheering which was fun.  I particularly remember a dad with his toddler-aged daughter who he was coaching to say "Go Runners!" So cute.

Mile 7 was 6:36.

We turned onto Brady street which is a good part of the course.  I remembered this part from last year and that really helped get me going.  We turned to go onto the pedestrian when I saw Amanda waiting for her husband! That was fun and a spectator I wasn't anticipating seeing.  At that point I was running with another woman.  We had to turn on this hairpin turn at the bottom of a hill and I passed her.  Given the fact that I started so far back, it was impossible to know where I was place-wise.  My focus was not at all on place - I was all about the time.

Mile 8 was 6:42.

We ran through downtown and on Old World Third.  I don't really remember these miles very well.  I know I was hurting and telling myself just keep going.

Mile 9 was 6:48.  

Mile 10 was 6:43.

And then we turned onto WI Ave.  We were dealing with windy spots all throughout the course but none compared to Wisconsin Avenue.  I was tired and almost crying because I felt like I was getting nowhere running into that wind.  Add onto that I was having a hard time getting rid of a ton of phlegm.  I am fairly certain that the guy in blue who I was running next to/behind thought I was vomiting.  I just tried staying behind him to block some of the wind.  I was very grateful to the racer in the wheelchair and the woman biking with him because she was a CHEERLEADER.  I was counting down to 16th street where I knew we would turn and get a break from the wind.  

Mile 11 was 7:01.  THE WIND SUCKED.

Then we were on 16th street and I was just trying to stay with the guy in blue.  I was bringing to mind all of those strength workouts - 3 x 2 miles in particular. 

Mile 12 was 6:31.

Ok.  At this point, I knew I was going to be close to 1:28 because of the time elapsed on my watch.  This was enough to keep me going, although I was checking my watch every 0.2 miles.  I was so tired.  I kept telling myself that I was not really tired - it was only my brain.  

Mile 13 was 6:36.

As I was rounding the corner to the finish, I heard "GO MAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!".  I recognized that voice and began scanning the crowd when I saw my family!  They made it!!!  I gave my son a high five, turned the corner and joined all the 10K runners and tried to propel myself through the finish line.  I stopped my watch.

My watch read 1:28:37 for 13.25 miles. (6:41 pace)

The finish clock said 1:31:XX.  

I got my medal and worked my way through the finish chute.  

I was really cold as the temperature had plummeted during the race.  I saw my family and they were cold and wanting to bail.   They took my post-race snacks and then said they were going to get donuts and meet me at home.

Then I saw another Oiselle person, Rachel, and talked to her for a bit so that was fun.

Then I saw two people I worked with who ran the 10K!  More sweaty hugs.

I still was freezing and finally got to gear check to get my clothes.  

I got in the beer line and ended up being right behind Jonathan, another BibRave Pro who did the trail race that I ran earlier this summer.

I wanted confirmation of my PR so I stopped at the results tent.  "The half-marathon results will not be available until early afternoon."

WHAT?  I specifically remember there being printouts at the race last year with a variety of stats.  These were available immediately at the finish.  I was SO annoyed at this.

I started to work my way through the mud pit that was the finish area to my car when SURPRISE. They had that area blocked off.  I had to work my way back through the finish area around to the other side of the LONG finish chute and make my way through another giant mud field to get to my car.  So much for my amazing parking spot!  

I was freezing by the time I got to my car and caked with mud.  

So, I blasted the heat and Macklemore all the way home.  

"I feel glorious, glorious!"

Then began the process of clicking refresh on the "half marathon results" link on my phone for the next 4 hours.

Finally, in the Costco parking lot, I had my answer:

HOLY SHIT! I got second place (out of 723), an official time of 1:28:35 (6:46 pace) and a NEW HALF MARATHON PR!

Other stats:

I was 17th overall (combined genders) and first in my age group.

5 mile: 33:52 (6:46 pace)

10 mile: 1:08:53 (6:53 pace)

Last 5K: 19:43 (6:21 pace.  Also, 19:43?!  That is only 10 seconds slower than the only 5K I ran this year.) 

Here is my Strava chart of paces and elevation:

Overall, I am very pleased with this race.  Besides being a PR, I overcame some mental challenges.  However, as with every race, I am left with the fact that mental hurdles are something I still need work on.  I mean, I was definitely tired at the end but not all out spent.  My legs didn't even really hurt after I stopped running.  This is somewhat frustrating to me because in the moment of the race, I definitely felt physically spent. 

Oh.

And I entered my pace into a pace calculator for a marathon.  Yep.  Foreshadowing some 2018 goals here:

"The world is up for grabs.  I feel glorious glorious."

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training Week 18: THE TAPER + Race Goals

Disclaimer: I’m promoting Milwaukee Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!"

Another Mother Runner just sent me an e-newsletter with "tips for the taper" or something to that nature, and I was happy to see that I have been following most of them for this taper.  My number one priority for the week was to get sleep.  I am happy to report that my sleep so far this week has been all "green circles" (best rating in the Sense sleep system) and that my average amount of sleep was over 8 hours.

My goal for running was follow the plan and no run under 8:00 avg.  I did ok with this.  My throat has been feeling better with each passing day.  I'm still snot rockets and loogies, but hopefully that won't be too much of an issue.

Here is my taper week in review:

Monday, October 9
Plan says: 5 miles

What I do:  Given that sleep was a priority for me this week, I had no qualms about shutting off my 5 AM alarm and getting this done after work before the bus arrived.  It was one of those taper runs where you feel so tired and your mind starts going, "How am I going to run 13 miles at a much faster pace than this in less than week?"  Luckily for me, I have at least one of these types of runs with every taper so I know better.

5 miles, 38:51 (7:46 avg pace)

Tuesday, October 10
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Another day where I shut off the early morning alarm and then drove home from work in pouring rain.  Sometimes I will gut it out and get the run in, other times, I will take the break. I was really tired all day on Tuesday so I made the switch to make Tuesday my rest day.

0 miles.

Wednesday, October 11
Plan says: Rest

What I do:   Actually get out of bed with the 5 AM alarm.  I went to bed early on Tuesday night because I was so tired so it wasn't too difficult to get out of bed.  It was lightly raining but as I mentioned last week, if I don't run on Wednesday morning, I won't get the opportunity for the rest of the day.

5.07 miles, 41:07 (8:07 avg pace)

Thursday, October 12
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  My son woke up at 3:30.  So I tossed and turned for almost an hour and a half and fell back asleep right before my 5 AM alarm so I don't even remember shutting it off.   I ended up going for a run after the kids were in bed, which is something I have not done in a LOOOOOONG time.  It was actually really fun and I had to reign the pace in because I kept thinking that it was go time!  Getting excited!!!!

6.2 miles, 49:17 (7:57 avg)

Friday, October 13
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do: 5 miles in the rain (again).

5 miles, 38:05 (7:37 avg pace)

Saturday, October 14
Plan says: 3 miles easy

What I do:  3 miles, in the rain (again).

3 miles, 23:43 (7:53 average)

Plan Miles: 24
Total Weekly Miles: 24.27

I have logged 614.47 miles in the past 18 weeks. That is almost double what I ran last year in the 18 weeks leading up to my last half marathon, where I set a PR.  A PR that I am hoping to break on Sunday!  Though I am running the same event as last year, the race went through a makeover and new management since last year and while the course is largely the same, it is slightly different.  

The weather looks to be ok.  The temps look great - high 40s/low 50s.  The one thing we all will have to contend with is wind and probably more rain, but the course doesn't go in any one direction for too long so there will be breaks.

So goals.  If I am feeling good:

A goal: Ideally, I want to run in 1:28 land.

B goal:   PR.  I need to run faster than 1:29:22 to do this. 

C goal:  Break 1:30

I realize these goals leave the space wide open for disappointment because they are SO close together time-wise AND they are all times.  Ideally I would have a process goal in there...but I don't.

Plan
I plan on running the first one to three miles in the 6:50 zone to test it out and go from there.  I ran the first seven in the 6:50-7:00 range last year, kicked it into around 6:30s for the next 4 and then tried to hold on until the end.   I want to test out pace in the first few miles on the conservative side but don't want to get stuck there.

I plan on using Gen UCan before the race and then fueling with Gu on mile 5 and 10.  I used no Gu last year, but this is mostly mental for me as I did every 5 miles in my spring marathon and really liked that plan.

I am really tired while writing this. I was with my kids all day and we did a lot, which was dumb of me but I had them by myself so I wanted to wear them out so they would go to bed good and sleep through the night!  I am off to foam roll and hydrate!

40th Annual Briggs and Al's Run for Children's Hospital Race Recap

Today I had the annual Al's Run, which I have ran for the past 4 years.  I spent some time last night filling out the race prep sheet in the Believe Training Journal.  In there I wrote the following goals:

1.  Pace myself in the first one-two miles.  I always GO OUT TOO FAST in this race.  The crowd and the downhill get too exciting.  (Long story short - I did not meet this goal.)

2. Try to do a progression run, or a steady state.  No positive split.  (Long story short - I did not meet this goal.)

3.  6:30 avg pace is the goal.  If shit hits the fan, try to make it a tempo run (6:44 pace).  (Long story short - my avg pace was 6:30! BAM!)

The race start is 10:30 AM which is late.  Like last year, it was a hot one.  As we were driving to the race at 9, the car temperature gauge indicated it was 77 degrees.

I had a great week of sleep and outside of the 2x3mi speed workout I did on Tuesday, my runs on Wed, Thurs, Fri were all easy paced.  I did try something new - the sample of Picky Bars oatmeal I received with my Picky Bars shipment this month.  It didn't seem too out of the norm so I ate it. (Side note: DELICIOUS.)  I drank too much coffee and not enough water.

We did our usual park in the middle of the start and finish area and walk.   I earned a fundraising prize so I ran to the far end of the start area for a warm up to claim it and I realized that I didn't have any timing strip on my bib.  I stopped by the registration tent and they gave me a timing chip strip.  Phew! Glad I realized that!

This race allows you to get an "elite" number if you think your finishing time will be under 35 minutes, which is generous.  Because of this, I always get an elite number.  Hey - it's the only race where I can claim to be an elite - I'm going to take it!

I did a porta potty stop and grabbed a cup of water from the volunteer table.  My mouth was so dry.  Upon reading my race recaps from previous years, this is a common theme.  I am terrible at hydration.

I made my way to the starting line.  I opted to wear my new Oiselle ombre crop and a pair of Oiselle distance shorts, along with my Boco Gear visor and Goodr sunglasses with my Adidas Ultraboost shoes.  I felt these were great choices.

The gun went off and I felt like I was holding back while running that first mile so I didn't bother checking my pace, which, of course, when one of your goals and tendencies is that you start this race too fast, was a poor choice.  My first mile was 6:04.  YIKES.

I approached the first aid station and dumped a cup of water on my head.  I really wanted to drink it.  My mouth was DRY.  I reigned it in on mile 2 which came in on my Garmin at 6:36.  A little slow but closer to goal pace than the first mile.

We then got to go down a big hill and round a corner onto Lake Shore Drive.  I hate this part of the race.  It seems to go on forever and the sun just beats down on you.  In my race-day plan, I wrote down "focus on lake stretch".  I was so determined to just keep running.  Stay Strong. Smile.  Don't let that stroller-pushing dad beat you.  Mile 3 beeped in at 6:29.  Phew.  Just keep going.

I have felt, in years past, totally spent by mile 4 in this race.   I was happy that although I was hot and thirsty at mile 4, I didn't feel totally done.  Pace beeped in at 6:38.  Another slow one. Time to pick it up.

JUST KEEPING GOING.  Get to the end of Lake Shore Drive.  Turn on Clybourn.

YES.

Ok, checked the watch and was at 4.5 miles.  Thinking, "I can eek out another 0.5 miles".  Pretend you are chasing that bus.

I rounded the corner and saw the finish clock just turn over to 32:00.  Woah!  I could maybe pull this off.  I tried to go as fast as I could, and crossed the finish in 32:18, which is 6 seconds shy of my PR.

My official pace was 6:30 on the money.  YEAH!

My Garmin had this a little over 5 miles, so my time was 6:26 avg on there. Mile splits were 6:04, 6:36, 6:29, 6:38, 6:23.

My finish was good for #1 in my age group, #6 female, #53 overall (and I beat stroller-pushing dad  - phew!).  The leading woman was 31:16 or 6:17 avg pace.

I have to think that if it were not 82 degrees and sunny during this race, I would have been faster.  Another highlight - last year I ran a 32:50 and weeks later had a half marathon PR. Let's hope that trend holds this year too!

I was curious about my history with this race so I looked back.  I haven't come very far in 8K land in 4 years, AND I haven't lost very much either.

2014     32:12     2nd place AG, 13 woman, 105 total (6:29 avg)
2015     32:17     2nd place AG, 9 woman, 87 total (6:30 avg)
2016     32:50     1st place AG, 5 woman, 58 total (6:36 avg)
2017     32:18     1st place, AG, 6 woman, 53 total (6:30 avg)

In other news, my mom who is self-proclaims she is #notarunner broke an hour in the race!  Woohoo!

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 7 Recap

Week 7 is in the books.  It was again all over the place since I had a mid-week 5K race but by the end of it, I recovered nicely and finished all of the workouts.  I am looking forward to a "normal" week of no races! I finally feel like I am not on the brink of falling asleep.

Monday, July 24
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 3 x 1 mi at 5k/10k pace with 800 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  I was not going to do another speed workout the day after a 10K race so I opted for 6 miles easy.  This felt good.  I was able to get out of bed early, the air was cool.  I was slower than usual, which I was happy about.

6.05 miles, 51:31 (8:31 avg pace)

Tuesday, July 25
Plan says: 0 miles

What I do:  Wanted to do my tempo run today since I was using the 5K as a "replacement" for mile repeats.  I did NOT get out of bed early to do this because I went to bed 2 hours later than usual (and having consumed more wine than usual, #bookclub ).  I ended up doing this late afternoon, when it was hot out, but not nearly as hot as it had been.  I had attended a work conference all day and had different food than usual for lunch, including quinoa.  Ever since doing Whole30 last year, quinoa was a food that always provoked a reaction:  major stomach cramps, sweats, total gross.  Two of the salads that I ate huge portions of at the conference were quinoa-based.  I knew this was taking a chance, but I was hungry.

Needless to say, I left for my warm up and wasn't feeling so great.  Thought it would just take a bit to get going.  Ran 1.5 miles and then had to kick it into gear.  I opted to start out a little slower than tempo pace and was still not feeling that great.  I circled back to my house since I had a water bottle on my mailbox.  I started chugging the water bottle when stuff started coming back up in the opposite direction.  Ew.  I thought I would be ok, so I continued on.  Yep.  It wasn't ok.  I abandoned the tempo run 2.6 miles (and plenty of stops) in.  I walked home from that point feeling like I was going to die, the sweat just running off me.

1.5 mile warm up, 12:04 (8:03 avg pace)
2.5 mile tempo, 16:44 (6:47 avg pace)

3.97 miles total

Wednesday, July 26
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  Took my off day here.  Day before the race.  Felt amazing to do nothing.

Thursday, July 20
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do: Race day! 5K.  Race recap here.

1.69 mile warm up, 12:29 (7:24 avg pace)
3.13 race, 19:33 (6:15 avg pace)
1.65 mile cool down, 14:19 (8:40 avg pace)

Friday, July 21
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  OOH Thursday night was a rough one.  I was pretty amped up when I finally got home after the race and went to bed around 10pm but could not fall asleep.  This turned into one of those nights where every noise made me think someone was in our house.  Then I had a bout of digestive distress similar to my entire day Thursday.  When I finally felt myself drifting off, my daughter came in because of a bad dream.  This happened again a few hours later.  I got back to my bed at 4 AM.  On the plus side, because I was already awake, it wasn't too hard to get out of bed and get out the door!

This was a beautiful run.  I intentionally chose to run laps around the pond so I would not be able to go fast and just sort of zone out with a podcast.  My right hip was REALLY bothering me though.

6.1 miles, 52:39 (8:38 avg pace)

Saturday, July 22
Plan says: 10 miles at long run pace (7:30-9:00)

What I do:  I struggle with waking up early on the weekends because I so love laying in bed with my husband and kids in the morning.  During the week, our mornings are GO GO GO so it is nice to veg out with them on the weekend.

I am then running during my son's afternoon nap, which is usually the warmest part of the day.  I mostly have been successful at convincing myself that this will make me a stronger runner.   Mostly.

I headed out in the hot sun to get this done.  I really wanted to be around 8:00 for the first half this, to ensure that it would not go off the rails and I was successful in this endeavor.  I ended up getting a Garmin tan because I did not put sunblock on my arms which was a dumb move.  My hip was still sore but not feeling as rough as it was on Friday.

10 miles, 1:16:40 (7:53 avg pace)

Sunday, July 23
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  My family went on a long (6 miles - long for a 6 + 3 year old!) bike ride mid-day and I ran afterwards.  I again went on the pond to get 5 miles in (flip flopping my Friday and Sunday runs).  I was hot and tired, but got it done which was my only goal.

5 miles, 39:26 (7:40 avg pace)

Plan Miles: 42
Total Weekly Miles: 37.6

Race for Bacon 5K 2017

I again raced for bacon last night in Sheridan Park!

I wanted this race to go better than it did, but given all of the events of the week, I am ok with my time.  (She says in an effort to convince herself.)

I have been struggling with some GI stuff this week, which likely started on vacation in Chicago.  Getting out of my routine usually leads to disruption in my GI system.  I started drinking this Smooth Move tea on Monday to try to remedy this.  Then I had a crazy lunch with lots of quinoa (which previously has never lead to good things with my body) on Tuesday which led to a failed tempo run and some vomit.  Thus, I took Wednesday off.  I was not looking forward to the race in the beginning of the week.

Then, we watched Moana, a movie that I love, and I had a great night of sleep.  I woke up Thursday with a better attitude.

However, I made the mistake of continuing using the Smooth Move tea throughout the day AND had Indian food for lunch because I attended a talk for work.  The pairing of these two things led to a lot of bathroom time for me.  (Sorry - I am trying to be real about this situation without being too gross.  Fine line, I get it.)

The race began at 6:30 pm and is on the south side of the city.  I live northwest of the city so I wasn't going to have enough time to go home between work and the race with traffic.  Thus, I changed into my race gear at my office and went straight to the park.  I arrived really early, went to the bathroom, picked up my packet, and then went back to my car and read my book for a bit.  I did a warm up run and felt a little weird at the beginning of the warm up -- wobbly legs --- but I was really nervous for the race so I chalked it up to that.  Then had to hit the bathroom, again.

We started to line up for the race, but it was strange because no one seemed to want to line up on the starting line.  I usually am hesitant to be on the line, but because no one else was, I stepped up.  There were protesters that cleverly got a hold of the race microphone for a bit before anyone figured out what was going on, and then we were off.

A younger guy took off after the bikes.  And then, it was me.  There was a guy next to me but that appeared to be it.  I was thinking that the situation was strange and thought, "Am I running too fast?" but I didn't feel like I was running fast so I just kept going.  I have not been able to pace very well lately (which is something I typically am decent at) so I should have checked my watch but I didn't.  I just kept running.  At about 0.75 miles, another woman came up by me.  We turned a corner and BAM!  Full-on headwind, which sucked.   My mile beeped at 6:00.  AW shit.  That was way too fast.  I could feel myself getting tired.  The woman took off and I did not go with her.  I just tried maintaining but the wind wore me out.  We finally turned a corner and then were on a bike path with the wind behind us.  I was done for.

So. Tired.  I sort of mentally gave up at this point.  My legs hurt, I was winded.  My second mile was 6:11.  Just keep running.  Just keep running.  Do not stop.

I could hear no one behind me but I didn't turn around.  The woman ahead of me had left me in her dust.  Seriously she was CRUISING.

I turned another corner and just could not believe how far away the finish line seemed.  I also saw that there was a guy catching up to me.  Randomly a family friend who lives on the south side was running with a group (not part of the race) and cheered for me, saving me a bit.  I mustered all I had to get to the finish.  I maintained the third place overall, second place female finish with a time of 19:33.

I had to wait at the finish a bit, bent over.  A guy came up to me and asked if I was ok and I was...eventually.  I talked with the first place female, who I believe ran a 18:22.  So fast and so nice!

I headed over to do a cool down.  My family wasn't there, and I didn't know anyone at the race, so that made it easy to get a cool down in.  I really struggled to move my legs during the cool down, but got 1.7 miles in.

After my cool down, I changed my shoes and went to grab my post-race food.  Given that this race is around dinner time, they post-race food is substantial for this.  Each participant gets a beverage of choice and then essentially a boxed lunch type meal.  I sat on the lawn to watch the band and eat my meal.

At that point, I remembered how cold it gets by the lake at night.  I remembered freezing at this race last year.  A little too late since I hadn't remembered to pack a long sleeve shirt or jacket.  Luckily the awards started soon.

It turns out that my finish time beat the previous course record, which meant that the first place woman has the new course record!  That was pretty exciting. (We high fived.)  It was fun to be a part of a strong women's finish, being the top two and three overall.  They also improved the awards this year.  The top three men and top three women all got the cooler full of bacon (and other pork products) AND a gift certificate to Performance Running Outfitters!  I was pumped as last year I finished second woman and did not get the gift card (only the first place in each gender did).

I again could not resist texting my husband, "I'm bringing home the bacon". :)

Ok.

So I did have a bit of downward spiraling after this race.  I really thought I would be faster.   I ran a 19:49 last year at this race, only two weeks after ditching a boot for a stress reaction.  I have been so consistent with training, particularly over these summer months, I was expecting a big payoff in this race.  I feel better about it today and am also happy that I have a break from racing for a while.  My next planned race, an 8K, is not until mid-September.

BTN BIG10K Race Recap

Disclaimer:  I was given free entry into the BTN Big10K as part of the BibRave Pro program.  For more information on BibRave Pros and to review races, go to bibrave.com

I ran a 10K yesterday: the BTN BIG10K!  The 10K is my most challenging race.  I have yet to run a good one.  I also don't have a lot of experience with them.  So much so that, even though it was a rough one, yesterday is a PR for me:  41:59.

Here is my lifetime 10K history:
7/4/04      Peachtree Road Race    52:08 (8:23 avg)
10/21/12  Fall Classic                   45:03 (7:15 avg)
6/25/17    Bigfoot Trail                 42:58 (6:54 avg)
7/23/17    BTN Big10K                41:59 (6:46 avg)

The fam and I tacked on a long weekend in Chicago to coincide with this race.  We left mid-morning on Friday to make the drive and luckily hit no traffic.  We stopped at Fleet Feet Old Town for packet pickup on the way to our hotel.  Packet pickup was a breeze and took no time.  I really like how Ram Racing uses QR codes for packet pickups. Our packets included a race shirt, a B1G1 Chipotle coupon and our bibs.

The race is centered around the Big 10 college football conference, which includes the University of Wisconsin-Madison (my undergrad alma mater, and my husband's).  When you register, you are able to pick from one of the ten participating schools and in doing so, your race shirt and race medal are themed accordingly.  Thus, I selected University of Wisconsin and my shirt and race medal were both UW themed:

The shirts are ok.  The fabric is "technical fabric" but that thicker variety that traps heat.  I also am not a fan of short sleeve technical fabric race shirts.  They never fit me very well - Women's shirts are always tight in the shoulders and Men's are always too big.  I would prefer tanks.

On Saturday, Ram Racing posted a weather advisory for the race indicating that temps and humidity would be high.  UGH.  (My Garmin data indicated that it was 75 degrees and 89% humidity when we ran.) Saturday night, I laid out all of my stuff, made my water bottle of Gen UCan for the fridge and set my alarm.  I slept terribly, doing the thing where you wake up every hour because you are afraid you are going to miss your alarm.  My alarm was set for 530 am, and the last time I woke was 525 so I just got up.  I quickly got dressed and left our hotel room.  Upon opening the door to the outside, I was blasted with warm air.  Already at 5:45am it was disgusting outside.

The start area was 1.6 miles from our hotel.  I started walking, ate a Picky Bar, and then jogged to the start.  I was DRENCHED with sweat.  When I arrived to the start area, I drank my Gen UCan and gear checked my stuff.  I had a little under an hour to go before the race start but was going to try to meet up with a few different folks: My friend Erica was running, Some Oiselle Wisconsin ladies were running, and a few other BibRave Pros were running.  Unfortunately, it was difficult to meet up with any of these people since I had already gear checked my phone.  I went to the bathroom and then randomly saw one of the BibRave Pros.  We took a group photo and then went to the starting corrals.

I was excited to have gotten elite corral placement for this race. Unfortunately, by the time I went to the corrals, they were jam packed with people and elite was combine with Corral A.  Thus, I started in the back of Corral A.  It was like sardines - there was no way to weave to the front without being a super jerk.  The starting gun went off and I ended up weaving in and out of people, which is always a bad move.  I know this, yet I still do it.  I ran past one of the Oiselle WI women which was fun and then ended up running past my friend Erica.  My first mile was 6:38.  I was really hot because the first part of the course was on underground streets.  I told myself to calm down and got through the second mile in 6:15.  Right after the second mile was the first hydration station.  I grabbed a cup of Nuun, chugged it, then grabbed a cup of water for my head.  I was already really thirsty.  Bad sign.

I just tried to hang on through mile 3, which clocked in at 6:40.  Just like in the Bigfoot Trail race, I could not believe I was only halfway done.  My official results indicate my first 5K was 20:34 (6:38 pace).

Mile 4 was a doozy.  When I saw the second water station, I stopped running to drink the Nuun and do the water cup on my head.  This water stop featured a slip and slide.  I SO WANTED to go in it.  I was SO.HOT.  Reluctantly, I joined the running masses again.  Thus, mile 4 clocked in at 7:06.

Most of the second half of mile 3 through mile 5 was along the lake which was nice.  I was solidly running with another woman and two men.  I told myself to just stay with them.  Mile 5 was 6:49.

They added a third water stop due to the heat (which was amazing) right at about mile 5.25 which featured a second slip and slide.  Again, I avoided the slip and slide, grabbed Nuun to drink and water for my head.  At this point, I just tried to pick up the pace to at least beat the woman I was running with (I did).  I knew we just had to go back under the street and through to the finish.  I tried to make my legs go but there really was no gas.  Mile 6: 6:54.  I saw my family right at the finish and was able to get a decent finish at 6:07 pace.  I was so grateful for the icy towel and bag of ice at the finish.  I just kept stuffing ice cubes into my 3/4 crop top bra.

At the finish runners got the generic medal, a bottle of water, Clif bars and bananas.  At the post-race party, you then were able to get a beer, an AmyLu chicken sausage with bag of pretzels and cookies and visit all the Big 10 school tents.  You had to go to your school tent to get the magnetized token for your medal.  They had a decent band at the finish (Maggie Speaks), and to my children's delight, school mascots (except Bucky Badger!).  We stayed at the post-race party for a bit, but then my friend Erica and my family went out to brunch.

Overall here are my placing stats:
108th finisher of 5,946
20th female of 3,207
4th female age 35-39 of 250
9th Big 10 Alumni Female of 2,035

The BTN Big10K also gives free race photos, which is ALWAYS an awesome perk.  You can also read my review of this race on bibrave.com.

I'm not really sure what I expected out of this race.  I was not nervous about it, like I usually am, and I also knew from the moment I got dressed that it wasn't going to be a great one because I wasn't excited like I usually am.  I was coming off 2 weeks of feeling blah during workouts.  I was under hydrated and tired.   I have a hard time judging what a "good" 10K would be for me.  Do I align a 10K with a half-marathon pace or a 5K pace?  My 5K PR pace is 6:04, my half-marathon PR pace is 6:48.  I am hoping to move that to a 6:44 this fall.  I generally think that I should be able to do a 10K in the 6:30 range, based on my 8K times in the past few years.  I do not have any other 10Ks on my race calendar, but THURSDAY I have a 5K!  CRAZY.