Not the sausage sandwiches!

I did a little research into the proliferation of Bibgate, and reading the translated versions of international articles has been both confusing and hilarious. 

As told by an article in Barcelona, per Google translate:

A curious and despicable phenomenon is exploding as popular careers increase their popularity, redundant: running with dorsal photocopying. This seems harmless when it is not so much the damage to those runners who religiously pay the increasingly predatory pricing to participate in a race, either an urban mile or undergo succeed marathon .

Although daily kilometer costs more than the organizers of the most popular careers cut on services offered, becoming so righteous as participants get the last drink you supposed to run out and even without medal for which you have previously paid to whether you will be finisher or not. In most cases, your drink or your medal has not saved the organization but surely has taken a savvy that has crept into your career without checking out. Many times free, but so many thanks to the complicity of a friend who has lent his dorsal to photocopy.

And in some cases, even someone takes advantage of your naivety to upload a photo of your precious dorsal marathon you're going to play to Instagram , Facebook or Twitter . That happened to Kara Bonneau , a young woman from North Carolina, who managed to earn the right to play one of the toughest marathons in participation: the Boston Marathon.

Bonneau, who had registered to contest the rugged edition last year, managed to overcome their fears of another possible attack and traveled to the capital of Massachusetts to win the race. He ran his marathon without any problems and finished in 3 hours and 31 minutes. Up to here all right.

The four runners who stole the identity of Bonneau consumed refreshment during the race and surely, if they were strong enough, also made ​​collection of the same at the end and even on the wall of his house hung the medal finisher will surely kick in the wall four corridors that are themselves deserved, since the right to run your marathon won.  And tell me, is so difficult to snag a chip behind a ridge? Thus, when a hacker runner reaches goal with a photocopy, it would read the back and could be expelled by avoiding to consume what you have not paid. And so would avoid, too, that whoever runs legally drink run out without his reward, either a medal, tee or sausage sandwich.

Articles from France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Poland, Korea, and Chile neither offered as much comedic translation, mentioned that I won the race, nor confirmed the theft of sausage sandwiches.

2014 Boston Marathon

Though Boston was not my "A" race of spring and I hadn't been training specifically for a marathon, I'd been excited about it for weeks... First, it's the Boston Marathon!  Second, I had really strong feelings about running after being there and seeing the tragedy unfold last year.  And third, I would be running with an amazing group of friends, with my dad and my husband there to cheer me on.

Packed my lucky shoes and headed up to Boston on Saturday morning

Checked into our hotel and headed to the expo.

After picking up my bib and race packet,
I met up with my family at the Convention Center

Then walked around Boston for a bit

Walked down Bolyston with my family to check out the finish line

On Sunday, I had a lovely brunch with my family and then headed out to Hopkinton to check out the start line before checking into our hotel in Milford.

After dinner, my family dropped me and Brittany off at our hotel, where we met up with Caren and Jennifer.  I stayed at the same hotel last year; it's really convenient to getting to the start but less so for spectators trying to get to the finish, so we had a room for runners while our families stayed in Boston. The only problem was, with the elimination of bag check and no plans to return to Milford following the race, we had to take only things we needed for the race or were willing to part with.  It was a little more work logistically, as we had to sleep in the throwaway clothes that we were planning to leave at the start, pack an extra set of travel size toiletries, etc, but it was worth the hassle to eliminate any unnecessary race day stress.

All decked out in our fancy pajamas aka pre-race throwaway clothes

The great part about staying near the start is that there's no need to get up early to go downtown for bus loading.  Instead, we walked out of the hotel and right onto a shuttle bus at 8:30.  This has multiple advantages, most notably the availability of working plumbing throughout the majority of the morning.  Last year, the hotel bus was able to drop us off right near Athlete's Village, but because of additional security measures, we had to be dropped off at a designated parking area, go through a security checkpoint (wands and people checking bags, similar to most sporting events or concerts), and then take another bus the rest of the way to Hopkinton.  I figured we would still have plenty of time, but an accident on the highway had caused a big traffic jam, and the security checkpoint line went around a block.  The delays caused a slight amount of stress, but not bad.

At that point, my only pre-race concerns were (1) peeing and (2) finding Ellen.  Since we were late to our designated meeting spot and only Jennifer had her phone, I figured the latter wasn't going to happen, but as we made a beeline for the porta-pottys, one of the first people we ran into was Ellen.  Hurray!  We were all together.  My happiness was short-lived, because when I saw the porta-potty lines I was pretty sure either my bladder was going to rupture or I was going to get a ticket for public urination (clearly I had done a good job of hydrating).  Thankfully Caren went to the front and 'encouraged' everyone to be more aggressive in moving our particular line forward, so I have her to thank for the fact that I didn't pee on myself or end up in the hospital.  Yes, I just wrote an entire paragraph about peeing.

As we finally left the bathroom area, they were calling for wave 2 corrals 7-9 to depart Athlete's Village.  My listed corral was 6, but Caren and Britt were in 8 and we wanted to start together, so since you can move back but not up, we all headed over to the big corral 8 sign.

In the corrals and ready for the start

As we walked toward the start line, I realized it had suddenly gotten pretty warm, and wondered if that would be a factor as the day went on.  The thousands of runners around us continued to shuffle along, until we finally crossed the start line and were off. 

Much of the first half of the race is downhill, so we tried to be cautious and start slowly.  The first couple miles clocked of in the 7:50s and then we settled into a pace in the high 7:30s-low 7:40s.  It was a little faster than I'd planned, but I made the decision that I wanted to stick with my friends through Wellesley and would back off the pace after that.  In hindsight, the faster pace most likely played a role in my later struggles, but sharing that experience with my friends was 100% worth it and if I had it to do over, I wouldn't have changed that at all.  

The first few miles went by pretty quickly, filled with chatting, dancing, high-fiving spectators, and reading some of the great signs along the course.  Caren, Jenn, and I were all wearing our Bull City Track Club singlets, so countless people shouted, "Go Bull City!" and we thanked every one of them with a woot, fist pump, or wave.  There were so many people!  Despite having a great experience, around mile 10 I was starting to feel warm and thought it definitely felt harder than it should for such an early point in the race.  Mile 10: 7:34. No wonder it felt hard, I was running too fast.  10-15 seconds might not seem like much, but it can make a big difference in a long, difficult race.  I told myself to not to worry and just enjoy the moment, and that was made easier as we ran through Wellesley and I read all of the "Kiss me" signs.  When we crossed the 25k mat, I wished by friends luck and Ellen and Jenn took off, while Caren opted to stick with me at a more relaxed pace through the infamous Newton hills.  

I'd been eating a chocolate cherry shot block every mile starting at mile 3, and all systems seemed fine until about 16.  Suddenly I just couldn't stand the thought of eating anything else, but I didn't feel I was bonking so I wasn't really worried about it.  What did worry me, though, was the heat.  By mile 16, I was taking three cups of water at each aid station: dump one on my head, drink one, dump another one on my head.    

I told myself to not worry about pace through the hills, and though I'd slowed to about 8:05 pace for mile 17, I was passing quite a few people who looked like they felt worse than I did.  And then I hit heartbreak hill.  Last year, I lost track of which hill I was on and thought I had one to go, so when I saw the broken hearts drawn in chalk on the street, I thought, "This is heartbreak? That's it? That wasn't bad at all!" Well, suffice it to say I did not think that this year!  I don't know how they did it, but the hills were bigger this time around ;)  

Happy to have made it to the top of Heartbreak Hill

At 35K, I knew it was definitely not going to be a PR day.  I turned off the lap pace on my watch, deciding to accept a slower pace and just enjoy the last 10K as much as possible.  I high-fived everyone with a hand out, smiled for the photographers, and tried to not look at my watch at all.  

Somewhere around mile 22

I knew my dad, Monte, and Mary were near the 40K sign, and I was able to spot them, which was great.  Since by that point I was pretty much jogging, I'd decided to stop to hug them.  I normally wouldn't want to add extra seconds to my time, but I really wanted them to know how much it meant to me that they were there to support me.  I think they were surprised by that, and Monte yelled, "Go! Go!"  Definitely 15 seconds well spent. 

Mile 24.5

With some energy from seeing my family, the knowledge that I only had a mile and a half to go, and the amazing crowd support, the last mile, though one of my slowest, was also one of my favorites.

The Citgo sign: The end is near!!

Somewhere in the 25th mile, I passed Larry Chloupek.  It is absolutely amazing to see what people can accomplish if they put their minds to something.

Homestretch!

As I made the final turn onto Boylston St, I caught a glimpse of bright orange to my left and looked over to see Jenn.  I yelled over to her, but the crowd noise on Boylston was crazy.  She took off with a sprint to the finish and I thought it would be nice to finish together, so I sped up too.  That lasted about 10 seconds, and I gave up the chase, and finished just behind her in 3:31:41.  Last year I had what felt like a Jimmy V moment... running around looking for someone to hug after they put that medal around my neck, so it was great to have a friend there.  

We collected our medals, ponchos, food bags, and water, and waddled over to the Arlington St Church, where we'd planned to meet up with our families and fast teammates who'd started in wave 1 and long since finished.  

I cannot say enough good things about my 2014 Boston Marathon experience.  I loved almost every second of it (though my quads might beg to differ), and am so glad that I decided to make a return trip.

Bull City Track Club representing in Boston

Two Boston Marathon finishers in the family!

I have the best dad and husband a girl could ask for

It's amazing what a difference a shower can make!

BCTC Reunion at Porter's 

It's not "just a number"

It's been a crazy few days.  When I discovered other people in my race photos and posted a picture of the bandits to Facebook and Twitter, I never imagined that 48 hours later that photo would be all over the internet.  The reaction has been largely supportive, though there have been some pretty harsh comments directed toward me as well.  There have also been a number of comments to the effect of, "So what? Why do you care?" I've seen a lot of commentary, both thoughtful and otherwise, on both side of the bandits debate, so I will set the bandit issue aside for the moment and try to explain why seeing others wearing my number was so upsetting.

When I registered for my first marathon in 2010, the goal was just to finish, and I told my family that I would be running one and only one marathon, to scratch it off of the bucket list.  I'd never run more than 13.1 miles, and my longest training run was to be 22 miles, so I felt that just covering 26.2 miles was going to be a huge accomplishment for me, regardless of my finish time.  The last three miles were a struggle, but I finished.  My dad and husband were waiting at the finish line, and as my legs cramped like I'd never felt before, I was overcome by emotion.  Did I win?  Of course not.  But I had accomplished something that until only recently I'd never thought I could do, and was very happy with my "one and only" marathon and my time of 3:43:48.  And then I realized that I was less than 9 minutes away from qualifying for the Boston Marathon... The Holy Grail of marathon running.  

Yes, I'd sworn that was the only marathon I would run, especially as I'd worked my way through the training cycle and realized what a time commitment it is to run 40+ miles each week and how much dedication it takes to get out there and run in the cold, in the rain, when it's 90 degrees and humid, or when you just want to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep. But the possibility was there... Boston.  I'd have to take 20 seconds per mile off of my marathon pace, which is not a small amount, but not outside the realm off possibility.  

So I set my sights on Boston, and on March 29, 2011, I registered for the Miami Marathon.  For the next 8 months, I ran, added speed work, joined the Bull City Track Club, and really dedicated myself to training for a BQ.  And over those months, running became a big part of my identity.  I became friends with other runners, and when we weren't running together, we were talking about running or planning the next race.  I continued to really push myself in training and really committed myself to becoming a better runner... all as a means to earning a spot in the Boston Marathon.  On January 29, 2012, I finished my second marathon, crossing the line in 3:28:24 and earning my coveted BQ.  

On September 14, at the moment the BAA opened applications to runners with qualifying times of 5+ minutes under their age group cutoff, I registered for the Boston Marathon.  When I received my runner passport from the BAA with my race number in March, my excitement really started to build.  On the day before the race, I picked up my bib.  My ticket into the Boston Marathon.  

From the time I decided that I wanted to qualify for Boston and registered for the Miami Marathon on 3/29/2011 through the moment I stepped first to the line at Hopkinton, I spent 427 hours and 52 minutes running 3,092 miles (thanks Garmin Connect), and finally, on April 15, 2013, I ran the Boston Marathon.  As I ran through Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, and Newton, over Heartbreak Hill, into Boston, and finally onto Boylston Street, it was evident that those 3,000+ miles were absolutely worth running because they culminated in such an amazing 26.2.  To me, that Boston Marathon bib number was not just a number.  It represented years of hard work.  It symbolized reaching a personal goal and doing something that for the first 31 years of my life, I wouldn't have thought possible.  It was literally sign that showed I had earned a spot into the most prestigious marathon in the world.  As a friend said yesterday, in many ways it's similar to a diploma: years of work went into it, and it has far more value to the person who earned it just than any old piece of paper.  

The exhilaration of running the 2013 Boston Marathon carried me to a new PR and another BQ, but given the huge expense of traveling to Boston for Marathon weekend, I didn't intend to return in 2014.  The tragedy at the finish line changed that. I had finished the race and was only a few blocks away when the bombs went off, and as we learned details about what had happened, I knew I would be back.  I wanted to support Boston and the Marathon, and, like thousands of others, planned my return for the 2014 event and knew this year's marathon would be a running experience unlike any other.  

Perhaps I did not have the 25 month lead up to the race that preceded my first Boston Marathon, but I worked hard to get there.  I paid to be there.  I earned my spot.  And that is what 14285 means to me.  People can say what they want about bandits, but to me, a Boston Marathon bib will never be "just a number."

Boston Bandits

I haven't gotten around to writing my Boston Marathon race report, but wanted to share this right away...  

When I got the link to "my" official photos from marathonfoto, I found pictures of four other people wearing my bib number!  My guess is they used the bib photo that I posted on instragram or purchased the fake bibs from someone who did.  In either case, this makes me so upset!!  Thousands of people worked really hard to qualify for Boston or raised a ton of money for charity in order to earn a bib, and many who qualified by a minute or less were unable to register because the race was full, so to use a fake bib to bandit the race is just not right.  Not to mention this poses a serious security threat.  They even posed with finisher medals as though they deserved to be there.  Obviously they got away with it insofar as they completed the race and took home finisher medals, but I hope they can at least be identified and disqualified from future races.  

I also hope that this will serve as a cautionary tale... It never would have occurred to me that someone would do this, so I didn't think twice about posting a bib photo on social media in my excitement leading up to the race.  In hindsight, that was probably naive of me, and I certainly won't be doing that again.  Be careful what you post!

Rock n Roll Raleigh

I signed up for this race thinking it would make a good, hilly, supported last long run before Boston, and the plan was to run close to my marathon goal pace (7:45).

While waiting for the start, I ran into Emma, a lovely young woman who has joined our running group for a few training runs.  We ran the first 7 miles or so of the race together, chatting about many things, including Art for Hospice, the really great non-profit that she founded while only in middle school, and the upcoming Boston Marathon, which she was also preparing to run.  We were running a bit faster than I had planned (5K in 23:48, 10K in 47:58), but I was trying to focus on effort rather than pace, so I didn't worry about it too much.  It's pretty much all uphill from mile 6.5 to 8, and I slowed down with the goal of keeping my heart rate and effort level in check.  Around mile 7, the 1:40 pace group passed by and Emma decided to go with them so I was on my own.  Shortly after that, I ran through a crowd of spectators in Cameron Village, including Margaret and Ellen, who had made me another fabulous sign!

My watch beeped at the completion of mile 8 and flashed 8:01.  Not bad for me on a hill, and it would be the only 8 of the day.  I passed Monte and Alan, which gave me a nice little boost of energy.   was happy to see my speed increase and effort decrease as I coasted down Hillsborough St and back towards downtown Raleigh.  Monte and Alan were able to cut down to the Bell Tower to catch me at mile 9 before making the turn to Pullen Park. 

Things were going pretty well, and though I had slowed a little from my earlier pace, I just focused on running comfortably and not doing anything stupid before Boston.  By then it was starting to warm up, and the hill at mile 10.4 felt pretty challenging.  And then I passed a seemingly endless line of yard signs, each with the photos, names, ranks, and dates... scores of service men and women whose lives have been lost.  That military memorial really put things into perspective, and I teared up seeing how many signs there were.  After that there were dozens of volunteers holding American flags.  It was incredibly moving, as evidenced by the photo gallery on the Run to Remember page.  We then had another lovely view of the Raleigh skyline (this was definitely a picturesque route) before returning downtown.  I considered speeding up for the finish, but kept reminding myself that I would be running Boston in 8 days, so I just stuck to my steady pace until the watch hit 13, and my only burst of speed was running 6:16 pace for the last .16.  Finish time: 1:41:46, which is 7:44/mile and pretty darn close to my target of 7:45/mile!

After collecting my medal, a guy who'd be running off my shoulder for the last few miles thanked me for pacing him and we chatted for a bit.  Then I headed back over to the host hotel where they had the VIP lounge (thanks, SAS!).  There is a separate VIP gear check, so I grabbed my bag in about 2 seconds, changed into dry clothes, got a massage, and had a snack from the buffet before heading down to the finish line to cheer on some friends.  Heidi ran so fast that she broke the tape in the full marathon before I was back at the finish line, but I was able to see several friends, some who had just finished their first half marathon, which was awesome.

Definitely one of the coolest looking race shirts I've gotten (this is the back)

And a cool medal

All in all, things went according to plan, I didn't feel like I overexerted myself, the course was really scenic, I had company for a good bit of it, and I had a great experience.  I was, however, glad that I was just running at marathon goal pace and not trying to race this one - it was definitely hilly and was pretty warm by the end.  Given the proximity to my house, the fun atmosphere, and the scenic course, I will definitely keep this on my radar for next year. 

Esprit de She!

I am excited to announce that I've joined the Athleta Esprit de She family as an ambassador!

NC friends... come join me in Cary on June 26 to run the 5K or 10K! Some of the perks include two complimentary drinks and a GoVino wine glass, post-race snacks, a one-year subscription to SELF magazine, an Athleta performance tank, and more! Yes, a sweet tank top instead of yet another standard tech-t AND a travel wine glass AND a post-race party. (Pretty sure they were thinking of me when they organized this!)

Register here, use the referral code EDS75, and let me know that you'll be joining us!  Hope to see many of you on June 26!!

March

Despite still being slightly behind where I had hoped with my training, March was actually a pretty decent month.  I feel like I have a pretty good base, and other than the bruise on my foot and a few occasional aches and pains, my body seems to be holding up ok (*knock on wood*).  My biggest concern is not having a run of more than 16 miles going into Boston.  But I did hit 40 miles last week (in March 2013, I topped out at 35 miles with one 18 miler and managed a marathon PR in Boston), so I'm trusting the plan and hoping for the best!

Running: 155 miles, 20:52:24

Cycling: 147 miles, 10:25:03

Calories: 23,820 (that's a lot of cookies)

Merge 25K

The Merge 25K was announced in the fall, and is a unique race that runs from Chapel Hill to Durham, in celebration of Merge Records' 25th anniversary.  The course is pretty hilly and I knew I'd be in the midst of Boston training, so I figured it would be a great supported training run, hopefully at marathon goal pace, and I knew it would be good for me to get off of the ATT and work on my hill running.

We did a test run a few weeks ago, and it really didn't go well for me at all.  The hills killed me and I decided to stop at mile 10.  Thankfully Nancy was willing to come back for me with the car, and it all worked out in the end, but I struggled to run at 8:30 pace and dropped 2/3 of the way in, so I was pretty skeptical about my ability to actually run the whole thing at or faster than MGP.  Plus my legs were feeling pretty heavy after a decent training week (the last 7 days included over 30 miles of running and 60+ miles on the bike).  On top of that, I spent the entire day before the race at the NCAA tournament in Raleigh and the last game finished around midnight, so I finally got to bed around 1am before waking up at 4 to take my dad to the airport.  So between the miserable test run, tired legs, and lack of sleep, I was extremely apprehensive going into the race.

Pre race RUN DRM tattoo modeling with Jennifer and Karen
Photo credit: Bull City Running Company

Originally my plan was to try to run at marathon goal pace (7:45), but my coach suggested running in the low 7:30s, so I figured I would shoot for something in the 7:30-7:45 range.  Sara had a similar plan, so we started out together.   We failed to get in a warm up, other than jogging off to find a bathroom spot (apparently it's not a race unless I pee in the woods), so we took the first couple miles pretty easy (7:50-7:48) before picking it up a little (miles 3-8 just under 7:35 pace).  Around halfway, Sara picked up the pace a little and I decided to keep steady in the 7:30s, so I was then running solo.  My legs didn't feel awesome, but I felt much better than I'd expected and was pleasantly surprised to be holding pace through the hills.

I've been struggling with race nutrition lately, as my last few attempts at mid-race gels have led to an upset stomach.  It's not a big deal for half marathons or anything shorter, which I can get through without taking anything, but I know that I will need to eat something at Boston and need to get this figured out.  Honey stinger chews (which size and texture-wise are comparable to gummy bears) have worked well for me on the bike, so I took some of those along for this run.  I ate one at miles 8, 9, and 10 and planned to eat one per mile for the rest of the race.  I was also drinking a few sips of water at all of the aid stations, which were about 2-3 miles apart.  Around mile 11, my stomach started acting up and the last chew and bit of water came back to haunt me.  With that out of the way, I felt a little better, and got back to the business of running 7:30s.  Unfortunately that was short-lived, and I got sick again at mile 13.3 (I remember checking my watch and thinking if only it was a half marathon, I'd be done).  I could tell there was a lot more to come, and my focus shifted to just getting through the last 2 miles so I could get off of the course and avoid massive public vomiting (no one wants to see that).  Through the last miles, I found that the fastest pace I could run without jostling my stomach too much was around 8:10.  My legs were feeling ok and cardio-wise I felt great, so it was hard to just watch the people around me pick up their paces to finish strong and not be able to go any faster.  As soon as I crossed the finish line, I ran out of the finisher area and found a secluded spot to get everything out that wanted to come out.  I'll spare you the further details, but I did finally feel a little better...  And my official time was under 2 hours, averaging 7:43 despite the slower miles at the end, so overall I'm pretty happy with the run.

One of the things I'd been most looking forward to about this race was the post-race party (I do love a good post-race party!), but unfortunately I couldn't stand the thought of eating or drinking anything.  I did my best to at least get through a beer, but two sips in I had to give it to Sara.  So disappointing!  It was a great race though - the course was pretty (despite the hills), it was well organized (of course, Bull City Running Co is the best), the weather was perfect, and the post-race festivities were great.  I just wish I could have enjoyed it more.

Despite the plan to stick around and enjoy the afternoon, we left right after the awards ceremony because I was still feeling pretty bad.  It was a ginger ale and crackers kind of day, I was running a slight fever, and had a few dizzy spells.  I was feeling a bit better the next morning and was scheduled to run an easy hour, but called it a day after two miles when I felt like I might throw up again.  I guess the good news is that the issues during yesterday's race might not have been due to the race nutrition.  I think this is the first time I've ever been happy to have a stomach bug, but it at least it means there's still hope for my marathon nutrition plan!

Tobacco Road Half Marathon

I'd originally signed up for this with the intention of running at marathon goal pace (7:45), but my coach recommended that I try to run a bit faster, so my plan of semi-leisurely miles was out the window.  The race is on the Tobacco Trail, where I have probably run thousands of miles, so I know the course enough to know that despite the race description of a flat course, there are actually very few flat sections.  Granted, there are no real hills, with the exception of a couple small ones on the road section between the start/finish and the trail access, but the majority of the course in slight incline or decline, which really is quite different from flat.

With this in mind, the plan was to try to run mostly even effort, pushing a little harder on the incline sections to prevent my pace from falling way below the target.

The first mile was pretty crowded, and I felt like we were going really slow.  I was contemplating speeding up a bit until I saw the 1:30 pace group in front of me and realized that under no circumstances should I be passing them, so I just settled in.  My knee started to hurt around mile 2, which had be worried, but thankfully that went away when we turned on to the trail.

Miles 1-2: On the road, small rolling hills, out to the ATT access.  7:15-7:10

Once we were on the trail, I just concentrated on keeping my perceived effort around "comfortably hard" and was less concerned with pace than I normally would be in a race.  The weather was perfect (40s, partly cloudy), I had plenty of space, and other than the aid stations and occasional spectators, I felt like I was just out on a regular Sunday run.

Miles 3-5: Packed dirt/gravel, mostly decline. 7:07-7:05-7:09

It's an out and back course, so as I approached the turn around the leaders were coming back on the field.  I cheered for the leaders and focused on counting how many women were ahead of me as we headed up to the turn around point, and then looked for friends as I headed back.  This was a great distraction, especially as my the pain in my foot worsened (I'm still telling myself it's a bruise on the bottom of my foot and nothing more serious), but sadly I often didn't see people until they yelled "Go, Kara!" and by the time I realized who it was they had passed. (To all of my friends who cheered as I went by - I didn't mean to ignore you and your encouragement was very much appreciated!)

Miles 6-8: Up, down, hairpin around a cone, up and down again. 7:24-7:22-7:18

Showing of my Bull City Running Co temporary tattoo at mile 8
Thanks to my hubby for coming out to cheer and take pics!

Running up, even at a low grade, is definitely not my favorite, and I knew from experience that miles 9-11 were just a slow, steady incline.  I did work a little harder through this section, but was ok with slowing down a little and not letting my heart rate or level of exertion skyrocket.  My foot was definitely not happy, but I told myself I needed to stay at least below MGP.

Miles 9-11: Not uphill, but all at an incline.  7:28-7:40-7:31

Once we turned back onto the road, it was back to the rolling hills leading to the finish line.  I had had my sights on a woman in a blue shirt for quite a while, so I worked on closing the gap between us.  Ultimately, I was successful in this, but once I moved up next to her, she picked it up a notch and pulled away heading to the finish.  Once we turned into the park, I tried to push a little harder and finish strong, and ended up crossing the line in 1:36:13, which was not far off my time from Phoenix a couple of weeks ago, despite this being a more challenging course.  Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the run, but I could really do without the foot pain.

Miles 12-13.2: Back on pavement.  7:14-7:05-6:41

After crossing the line, I waited for Brittany, who had been right behind me at the turn and had a great race to finish with a 4 minute PR.  We headed to the car, changed, stopped by the beer tent, and then went back to cheer on friends who were running the full.  I jogged down to the bottom of the hill at mile 24.5 and ran for a bit with Anne Marie, who also had a great race a huge PR.  Once she was off to the finish, I went back down to meet Lora, and ran back up the hill and to mile 26 before calling it a day.  I joined the group of DC runners who were in town for the race and we cheered on a few more of their friends as they finished the marathon, took a few photos, and then headed home.  Just as well pulled out of the park, it started to rain, so thank you to Mother Nature, who apparently hates us this winter but was nice enough to let us stay dry on this particular day.

With the great contingent of DC runners who came down for the weekend

Ring that PR Bell!  Congratulations, friends!

Phoenix Half Marathon

We arrived in Phoenix on Friday, checked into the Hyatt Mesa (host hotel), walked over to packet pickup, grabbed and early dinner, and then sat out by the pool where we enjoyed the little bit of sunshine that the trip would bring. 

Saturday morning I woke up before my 4 am alarm, went through the usual pre-race process, and walked over to the shuttle busses around 4:45. It's a point to point race with no parking at the start, so everyone had to ride the shuttle. The busses ran from 3:45 until 5:00, so it was great to be able to see them out of my window as I got ready and not have to worry about any additional logistics given the already early morning. I boarded a bus fairly quickly, and arrived at the start line around 5:10, leaving me with an hour and twenty minutes to kill until race time. Fortunately it wasn't cold (temps around 60), but the wind was blowing pretty hard and every now and then it would sprinkle a little, but fortunately the heavier rains held off for most of the time we were sitting around. I was a little cool in my singlet and shorts, but had to laugh as thousands of runners clad in capris, pants, and jackets huddled around the 60+ heat lamps they'd set up in the parking lot. Of all of the races I've done, at least 75% have been in colder weather (often MUCH colder), yet this was the first time I'd seen a sea of heat lamps like that. I went through the porta potty line, walked down to check out the start, went through the line again, and then found the 1:40 pace group. It started to rain as they played the national anthem at 6:05, so I put on my garbage bag for the warm up. I went off with the pace group and we ran about a mile or so before heading up to the start. We had a few minutes left and I had to pee again, so I ducked off into the woods with a few dozen others. I had to laugh again because I couldn't think of many other situations where people would be peeing in the woods around total strangers with little (if any) attempt to hide. Ah, runners… lol

Over the last few weeks, I've been building my mileage little by little and even added in a track workout last Tuesday, but I wasn't sure what I could expect of myself. I decided to start with the 1:40 group (7:38 pace) to be sure that I didn't start out too fast, but given the course (all flat or gentle downhill), I was hoping to finish somewhere between 1:35 and 1:38. The rain picked up as we waited to start, but thankfully the wind seemed to die down a bit. After battling the wind in Myrtle Beach two weeks ago, I decided the rain was definitely the lesser of two evils, and it wasn't a cold rain, so I really didn't mind.

After about five minutes with the 1:40 group I'd been chatting with, I sped up and settled in around 7:15 pace, coming through the first mile in 7:27. I stayed pretty consistent with my pacing (miles 2-9 were all between 7:10-7:17), drank Gatorade at the water stops, roughly ever other mile, and felt surprisingly good. The rain mostly stopped after mile 2, and the clouds helped to keep the temps from climbing out of the 60s, so I was thankful for that. The only thing that was bothering me was the bruise on the bottom of my right foot, but that hurts with every step regardless of walking, jogging, or running fast, so I figured the faster I ran, the sooner I'd be done and slowing down certainly wasn't going to help with that. I considered taking a gel or some honey stingers about an hour into the race, but after the less than awesome experience I had eating Gu while trying to run fast-ish (at Battleship in November), that idea was off-putting and I decided to just stick with gatorade. It worked out ok for this half, but I'm really going to have to figure something out before Boston.

Somewhere between miles 9 and 10, I started coming up on the 10k runners. The 10K ran on the last 6.2 miles of the marathon/half marathon course, but started a bit later. This really wouldn't be a problem if the walkers and joggers at the back end of the 10k were a bit more courteous, but they didn't seem to care that I'd already been running for over an hour, had a time goal, and was trying to get by. The weaving, curb-hopping, and missed water (there were so many people walking through that it was impossible to grab water on the move) had me really frustrated; and combined with the fact that I was actually starting to feel tired, I fell a bit out of my rhythm and off my pace (7:29 and 7:28 for miles 11 and 12). Fortunately once I passed the mile 12 marker, I was able to get it together a little and pick the pace back up for the last mile. As mile 13 beeped on my Garmin, I realized that if I hurried I could get in under 1:36, so I did what I could to kick to the finish (which I am always lacking) and crossed the line 1:35:58.

I got my medal and a water and headed out of the finisher's area, met Monte at our agreed upon spot, and walked back to the hotel. The awards ceremony for the half was supposed to be at 9, and we were back at the Hyatt by 8:15, so I had time to get some breakfast (they had a pretty decent free spread) and take a quick shower before heading back to the post-race festivities. Yet another reason staying at this host hotel was a fantastic decision… I wish every finish line was only a 3 minute walk away from a post-race shower! 

Results/awards were delayed, so after an announcement that it would be while, we went back to the hotel so I could eat another breakfast and get packed up while we were waiting. The second return to the finish line was well-timed, as they were in the middle of the awards ceremony but hadn't yet gotten to my division. Monte told me that I was around the 35th female, but that there were a couple of women ahead of me who might have been Athenas, so I wasn't sure if I'd placed. Either they were under 150 or didn't want to race in the heavy weight division, because I finished first and am now two for two in winning my division in half marathons with weight classes! 

Summary
Pros: Nice swag (wearable race shirt, arm sleeves), convenient host hotel, fast course, well organized, plenty of busses to the start, pre-race heaters.
Cons: The last bus leaves at 5 am, which is well before the 6:30 race start; few spectators (though this could have been due to the rain); the 10K creates a lot of congestion, results/awards over an hour later than scheduled.
Verdict: I would definitely run this race again, and may consider the full some time in the future.

February

The good news is I'm running knee-pain free!  I'm starting to get some consistency back into my running training, but it's a slow process and my weekly mileage is only back into the 20s.  

The most exciting news from this month, though, is that I've hired a coach!  With so many races on the calendar and some ambitious time and distance goals, I think it will prove to be a wise investment, and I am really excited to see what happens!