Another Milestone Accomplished!

I can't believe I did it! The race is finally over and after weeks of training I can finally say that I have completed a 1/2 marathon. I can't believe how much fun I had running this race. It was completely amazing to run through downtown Nashville! I am soooo glad that Jil convinced me to sign up and help me train for the race. Especially since I had no idea how to even train for one!

I am keeping this post rather short, just to let everyone know that I have completed the race and survived it! I am extremely exhausted and should be in bed right now, but I wanted to share my results. Thanks to all who have supported me over the last few months, I was thinking of all the kind words of support (and advice) throughout my run.

Overall Place: 3,504 out of 14,638
Overall Womens: 1,313 out of 9,209
Division Place: 377 out of 1,939

Thanks to my GPS watch I was able to get the following information. And as it turned out, my watch time matched my chip time to the second! Unbelievable!

Mile	Time	Heartrate
1	9:38	157
2	9:49	166
3	9:33	172
4	9:22	176
5	9:08	175
6	9:00	179
7	9:14	183
8	9:06	182
9	9:11	183
10	8:43	184
11	9:16	187
12	9:31	189
13	9:55	191
0.1	0:49	194
Total	2:02:24	179

Congrats to Jil and Andrew who also completed the 1/2 marathon. And to Marisa, Joel & Robert who all did the full marathon!!

Advice

While getting ready at home this morning I was reminded of various times in my life that advice was given to me. It’s funny that the one that sticks out in my mind the most is one of my childhood. First of all, for me to remember something like this from a long time ago is something just short of a miracle. I normally don’t recollect too much of growing up. I think the memories are there, in my mind, just hidden by a bunch of cobwebs. But this one, this one is different.

My family lived in Florida at the time, I think it was 1989. It was gym class and that day we were being timed on the mile for one of those fitness tests. At the time I remember thinking, “Oh my god, a mile?? Are you serious?? This is torture; it has to be against the law!! AND we have to run it again if we don’t get under a certain time?? WHAT??!!” But one of my friends gave me some advice, some advice that I wish I had never taken. She told me, “Don’t worry about it, it’s easy, all you have to do is run the straights, and walk the curves.” At the time I thought the plan was so brilliant, it sounded so great, so that’s what I did, ran the straights and walked the curves.

I finished the timed mile (under the cap, as I didn’t have to run it again) and was barely breathing heavy. I felt as though I didn’t work hard and that I took the easy way out. I felt as though I cheated myself. I don’t remember the exact time I finished in, but I am sure it was nothing to be proud of. To this day, I still regret running that mile the way I did. The advice that I chose to take was the worst advice ever.

So as I prepare for my ½-marathon (far from that measly mile in grade school!), I am trying to sort through all the advice that has been given to me. There has been plenty! But there’s a time when you just have to put all the advice to the side and just go with your heart. And that’s how I plan to run my race on Saturday.

5k Results

I guess I got my 15 minutes of fame! Check out this picture from the rec sports website. (Yes, that's me in the sunglasses and pink shirt.....thank goodness it wasn't a closeup!!) Check out the results by age group too. It looks as though I came in 15th out of the 51 females. Sweet!

My race number for this event was 73, and oddly enough, I finished 73rd out of 161 participants. Kev, of course, said I should have requested a lower number. haha. If my race number predicted my finish position, then I am in trouble for Nashville, with it's projected 17,500 1/2 marathon participants. ;-)

Hello, I'm 15596

my number for the race is officially 15596. ;-)

Dashing for the Cure

This Saturday I ran in the Rugged Warehouse Dash for the Cure 5k. It felt good to not only contribute to the American Cancer Society, but also to get in a race before my 1/2 marathon in a couple of weeks. I was quite pleased with my results since this was the first 5k I have ran since about 1997-98. Back then, I think I finished the 5k right at 30 minutes. This time it was a different story:

Mile	Time	Heartrate
1	8:06	177
2	9:14	186
3	9:12	188
0.1	0:44	190
Total	27:16	184

Nice. ;-)

PS - my coworker and friend Marisa just completed her first marathon this weekend! I am so proud of her accomplishment. Congratulations Marisa!! :-)

Smiles

Despite my face being half numb from the dentist, reading this put a smile on my face.

Bad Gear

As you all know, Sunday was a beautiful day especially for a run. I actually felt great and prepared to run my 9 miles in record time. Kevin even dusted off his mountain bike to join me for the 1 and 1/2 hour tour of the Huckleberry. Despite everything look like it was going to be a great run, I had issues with my new running shorts. To make a long story short, I am never going to wear them *ever* again. I am going to stick to my trusty ole spandex shorts!!

Here's a break down of my times:

Mile	Time	Heartrate
1	9:01	154
2	9:10	168
3	9:25	174
4	10:33	176
5	9:25	178
6	12:54	169
7	11:18	163
8	10:06	168
9	10:33	171
Total	1:32:25	169

So overall not bad. I had to walk on 3 separate occassions to cool off the chaffing that was being caused by the shorts. I have never been so mad at myself for trying something new on such a long run! I mean, my turn around point is in Blacksburg for crying out loud!!! What was I thinking?? I don't know if it was because of my "new" pain, but the rest of my body felt great for once. I felt like I could have kept on running if I had the right shorts on. My heartrate and breathing recovery was very quick, about 2-3 minutes after completion.

My last long run before the race will be a 10-miler in 2 weeks and I am actually looking forward to it. And I am not trying anything different for this run! :-)

VT Spring Game

The Hokie Football Spring game is this Saturday at 2pm.....and you can't say "Hokie Football" without saying "Tailgating"!! ;-)

Rumors have it that we will be going strong from breakfast to night caps. Fun times my friends....fun times.

PS - feel free to come by the Duck Pond and cheer me on while I participate in the Rugged Warehouse 5k Dash for the Cure at 10am!

My Personal Trainer

I put my new GPS system to the running test today and I love it! It's officially my new personal trainer. ;-) It's just amazing how much better you can train if you have something like this to look at and assess your running at any given moment. I was able to monitor my pace and push myself at key points of my run this morning.

I ran the same course as last weekend, the Huckleberry Trail starting at Christiansburg.

Mile	Time	Heartrate
1	9:05	152
2	9:11	165
3	9:29	172
4	9:36	175
5	10:00	178
6	9:13	176
7	9:29	177
8	9:48	180
Total	1:15:55	171

So of course the first thing I do when I get home after I review my times is think:

"If I did 8 miles in 1:15, I could possibly do 5 more at a pace of 10min/mi, which would put me at an estimated finish of 1:55."

haha, it's funny how my mind works at times. I mean, 5 more miles!!! That's a lot. I will get a better idea once I do my 10 mile run in 3 weeks. (That will be the longest run I do before my race.)

The run felt comfortable, no major aches and pains. Hills get me everytime though! haha. I definitely need to get better running gear. And my heartrate monitor rubbed a nice little sore spot on my rib cage. geesh! I guess the good part about these injuries is that I really don't know that they are happening during my run. It's when I get home and get in the shower that the pain begins!