Change Can Be Good...Right?

Well, I have officially retired my training for half marathons until next year. I am still running and have a few races planned for the remainder of the year.

Tomorrow I have my first cold race. I tend to do better in cooler temps but when we are talking about running in below freezing temps, I will be lucky if the sweat doesn't freeze while I am running.

I am looking forward to this race because of the distance. It is only a 10k and I have noticed that is where I do my best time for a semi long distance run. Anything after that, I truly have to work for it and even then, it doesn't seem like I work as hard as I should because something tends to always go wrong.

Grant it sometimes you can't help it but it aggravates you to know you put months into training and you have to have problems on race day. Ugh!!!

Anyway, instead of putting my primary focus on running this winter and doing classes I have decided to branch out!! Which means change!!! Ahhh!! Yes it can be scary but it can be good. I have decided that I am going to start lifting weights.

This is quite intimidating to me because I have only done weights as far as classes goes. Monday was when I asked myself this question. Change is good...right? I really felt like I didn't know what I was doing. I was constantly looking at my phone to make sure I was doing the exercises right because a friend sent me a link on Facebook to do a weight training program.

It was definitely a struggling first week but I am happy to say that I made it!!! I didn't hurt myself and I must have done the exercises right because I am SORE!!! So that is what is up with me currently and I will be writing a post about my race tomorrow. So until next time.

Middle Half

It has been a little over a week since I ran the Middle Half and I apologize that I am just now writing a recap of the event. Life has been a roller coaster since then. My daughter, Peyton, started running a high fever Tuesday, had to take her to the doc and my husband has been working nights this past week. Busy week but she is on the mend and the hubby goes back to regular schedule Monday. So I am now able to give you the recap.

For this particular race, I had a goal, just like any other race, of the time I would like to finish in but ultimately I just wanted to beat my time from the Women's Half. So around 5:30 last Saturday morning, my entire family, kids included, loaded into the car to head to Murfreesboro. Trip there was good and we were quite surprised that the kids were talking like a hundred miles an hour that early. They are use to getting up early to take Bradley to school but they are no where near as talkative.
Anyway, on the way we stopped at a McDonald's to get everyone else something to eat but me. If I got something to eat there, I would be lucky to finish the race in the set time limit due to being in the port-a-potties most of the time. Now that I gave you a little TMI, I will continue.

We arrived close to the start line around 6:15. To be honest, I never thought that we would get to the start line considering that it took us forever and a day to get through the slow moving traffic to park. Once we parked, the kids had to go to the bathroom. As to be expected at any half marathon or marathon for that matter, there was a line. At this point,  I was thinking that stopping to get them something to eat was not such a good idea and we should have fixed them something at home. Once the entire family went to the bathroom, we headed over to Subway to get a group photo of those running that morning from the Mach Tenn Running Club.

Those that were able to make it for the group photo.  There were several others that ran the Middle Half than who is pictured above. 



I really enjoyed getting to know everyone in the running club from doing the training runs so it was nice that they agreed to do a pic. Afterwards off to the start line we go. I had my mind set on finishing in two hours for this one since it was flat but I honestly figured that it wasn't going to happen. Once the horn blew we were off.

Below are a few pics that were taken by my husband at the start line.



I did good to stay with the pacer for about a mile or so but she started off entirely too fast and if I was going to finish, I needed to keep a good and steady pace so I hung back. Decided to focus on my own race. All along the course, there were people cheering for you and encouraging you along the way with either signs or verbally. It was an amazing experience.

As I have mentioned before, I have found I run better with no music. There was a particular point in the race, can't remember where exactly, that I wish I had music or the ability to VERY effectively tune someone out. I got behind this couple (they were not married or in any other type of relationship other than friends) were discussing the lady's husband's....I think you get my drift from there. After that, I wasn't sure what their relationship was and quite honestly I didn't care. I just wanted to get away from them and their conversation. So as soon as I could muster up enough energy, I passed them and never looked back.

I believe my favorite part of the race was when we saw the first person making the turn around and everyone was cheering for him. Even though we were in a race, it was amazing the amount of cheering that was going on. It almost brought me to tears and then I couldn't help but notice the sheer look of determination on his face. Despite all the cheers, he never looked our way or lost his focus. And he wasn't running with music which was amazing. He finished a little over an hour.

I am still trucking along and here comes the first girl to turn around. Oh my word!!! The excitement that erupted from the pack where I was running. It was an awesome feeling. Everything was going good. I hit the 10k mark and then we hit the hardest part of the race for me. Nothing but straight roads for 2 miles or so. This is where I started to have problems. My left ankle really needed to pop and I couldn't get it to pop.

As I am running, I see this girl bent over in what appears to be a great amount of pain. To be honest, I ran by her at first and just couldn't bring myself to not stop and see if she was ok. Her IT band was bothering and we walked it out a little bit and once I made she was alright, off I go again. Stopping a few times to try and pop my ankle. I definitely slowed down quite a bit at this point but I was still happy with where I was.

Met up with a friend of mine and also met a new friend around the 15k mark. At this point, it was nice to see a familiar face. We ran together for a while and I learned something around this time. Straight up orange juice from an orange is great to have when you are thirsty and have no water. You may not think this is a big deal but coming from someone that doesn't like oranges, it was huge. They went ahead as I am still trying my hardest to run on an ankle that needs to be popped.

Finally I get to the last 5k, at this point I am in a great amount of pain and my pace has slowed down tremendously. I really needed some encouragement and apparently God knew when I needed it. I believe that I met this particular man at the right time in the race. I never got his name but during the last few miles he was the biggest encourager to me. In fact, during the last 2 miles we took turns encouraging each other when we didn't think we could take another step. It was nice to be able to do something other than focus on how far it was before we crossed the finish line.

Once we both were going good, I gave it everything I had and went to that finish line. Including encouraging a girl that was walking right before we made the turn to get on the track. I was excited cause I thought I could sprint to the finish line. Well, for those of you that think a track is asphalt and just painted to look the way it does. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but that is not the case. It felt spongy and I was afraid I was going to hurt myself if I sprinted since I had never ran on terrain like that before.

I crossed that finished line and was able to beat my time from the Women's Half. At this point, I thought it was only by like a minute. One thing I liked about this half was that you didn't have to stand there with your hand out to get your medal. They put it around your neck and congratulated you.

As you can see in the pic above, I was really struggling to finish because of my ankle. 

Crossing that finish line.  Despite all the issues that I had along the way, I didn't let it keep me from reaching my goal of finishing and still was able to cut off 3

minutes from my time from the Women's Half 2 weeks prior to this race.

 



Once I stopped, I was barely able to walk with my ankle problems and was having a hard time finding my family. I eventually just sat down and stretched. I went and got my official time.  I had a PR of 3 minutes which was fine with me.  After a few minutes, I finally found them and we made the trip to head back to the car. While waiting for the hubby, the guy that I met the last 2 miles of the race told me thank you. I didn't even think I would ever see him again. Let alone have him recognize me or say thank you after the race. It was nice and I am glad that I could help encourage someone along the way.

Out of all the half marathons, this is by far my favorite and if I am able I plan to do it next year. I have slowly learned that it isn't always about pace but to me, the pure enjoyment of running. I found my love of running again that day. I may not be the fastest but I have a lot of heart and determination. To me, that is more than enough since God has given me the ability to run. Especially when there are those that are unable to and can only wish they could. So until next time.

 

Middle Half Marathon is almost here

I realize that it has been a while since I have wrote a blog so I thought I would update you on a few things that have been going on. First off, I have enjoyed not feeling the pressure of trying to improve my time so much.  I have actually found my love for running again by simply forgetting about the pace and turning my phone off where it will NOT tell me what my pace and miles are until I have either ended the run or if I double tap the screen.  I have also learned that I do better when I am not running with music.  I will get to that in a minute.  I have been spending some much needed time with my family and we went to the pumpkin patch yesterday.  That will be another post.

As the title states, the Middle Half Marathon is almost here.  It will be here in 6 days to be exact!!  I have mixed feelings about this race.  I am excited but at the same time all I hope for is to do better than what I did at the Women's Half Marathon and I would most definitely be a happy camper.  This particular half is extremely popular.  It's course is flat so there have been numerous personal records set by individuals records broken by the first time finisher.  I am looking forward to this because I have read on the website that you have people lining the course to cheer for you as you are running.  This is why I have read that they encourage to not listen to music.  So you can hear all the people that are cheering for you.  Not to mention, I have learned that I tend to do better running without music.

Since this race was only 2 weeks away from the Women's Half, I wanted to make sure that I didn't overdo it before hand and not be able to run at all.  So I ran a 3 mile recovery run the Sunday after the Women's Half, I was not out to break any of my personal records that I have made so it turned out to be a very enjoyable run. It also loosened my legs up quite a bit and I wasn't as sore as I was last year.  Through the week I did another 3 mile run but I had issues with my shins tightening up and wasn't sure why.  I had a friend of mine that has run several half marathons and marathons tell me that it was probably due to the LACK of stretching that I was doing.   Also, the team captain said it could be from training those muscles are hard in preparation for the half marathons coming up.  Either way I am just glad that it is starting to go away and I believe that making an extra effort to make sure that I stretch before and after has made a huge difference.

So Saturday I did a 6 mile run with a friend and it was awesome. We enjoyed a nice run and was able to spend about an hour just talking and catching up. Since the race is going to be flat, I wanted to make sure that I still had "long" run in me without having issues.  Six miles is almost halfway through a half marathon so I decided that would be a good number to do.  Everything worked great and I also got to run this morning.  The group that I was running with on Sunday mornings is no longer running since the Middle Half is this coming Saturday and I am going to be honest, I thought I was going to go through withdrawals. I had been meeting almost every Sunday to run for almost 2 months. That was until I talked to another friend that will be running the Middle Half as well and we met this morning and ran 3 miles.  I had my fastest 1k and fastest mile this morning.  How that happened I have no idea but it was nice to know that my body was capable of running that fast.

I am very thankful that I have found my love of running again and I hope that I am able to continue to remember that it doesn't matter what your time is.  All that matters is that you tried your best.  In the end, that is all that counts.  So until next time.

Women's Half Marathon...done

I just completed my 2nd half marathon this morning and I will be honest.  I was not happy with how the second half of the race went.  I started having really bad cramps in my left calf.  I tried everything that I could to help get it to where I didn't have to stop.  I had no such luck.  I wound up stopping and walking and then running a little bit.  After that initial stopping point, that was it.  I felt like I was needing to stop every so often and I did.  My leg was hurting even when I was walking but I pushed through it.  I finished and that is all that counts.  Although my finish time was not bad and I still had a personal best, I feel like the goal that I had for myself was too lofty and that I just set myself up for failure.

When I got back to my hotel room and had a chance to sit down, I decided to let my body cool off before getting ready.  When I was able to get on Facebook, I saw a comment that my mother in law put up on a photo that I uploaded last night.  After reading that, I must admit, I cried a little bit.  It made me realize that I was going to have bad runs, today was one of them, but I have to two beautiful kids and a husband that are proud of me no matter what my time is or how many times I might have had to walk because of cramping.  It was then that I realized that I put too much focus on the time that I am going to have and not on having fun or just happy that I was given the opportunity to run. 

There are numerous things that I could tell you about the race but I think that the most important thing that I can tell you is what I learned.  I learned today that no matter the reason that you run, whether it is for competition to win, health reasons or to just finish, that you do it with everything that you have.  That whatever you do, you do it with your heart. 

I will be honest with you, I spent time in a pity party for myself because I didn't reach my goal.  Once I read that comment from my mother in law, everything changed.  My family is proud of me for just completely 13.1 miles and they don't care how I finished.  Whether I ran the whole time, run/walked or walked the entire thing.  I am relieved that is the case because I may just be a middle of the pack runner for as long as I choose to run.  You know what?  That is ok and I am happy with that.  You want to know why?  Because God gave me the ability to run and I am thankful for that.

I have another race coming up in a couple of weeks and I am going to try something.  I am going to try running with my heart and not worry about anything else.  I love to run and that is all that it comes down to for me.  I want my kids to see me do something that I love and pushing through even though I am not the best. So until next time.

Almost time!!!

Today I completed my last run before the half marathon Saturday. I did one 3 mile run and worked on my pace Tuesday and today I did a 3 mile tempo run on the dreadmill. I usually try to steer clear of running on it but I really wanted to make sure that I was able to maintain a tempo run and not wind up doing speed work. Which is usually what happens if I go outside.

Now that I have those completed, I just have to wait for Friday to get here so that I am able to go and pick up my packet. I am so excited that I am not able to put it into words but on the flip side I am a little nervous.

Last year I ran and barely beat the time I said I would complete it in. Along the course, I let my mind play tricks with me and I honestly thought I wasn't going to finish. I am afraid I am going to have those same thoughts come back. I know what I need to do but it is easier to say it than to actually do it. I trained for 4 1/2 months for this race and I ran 11 miles for my last long run. That is 3 miles longer than last year. I have put in the training and I just need to learn to trust it.

My biggest issue when running is I tend to let my mind tell my body what to do. Especially when I know I am capable of so much more. That is what I am afraid will happen this time around. Your body hears everything and I need to learn to think more positively. Now that I have totally just spilled everything about how I feel when running, I will share with you what my goals are for this race.

Last year I barely finished under my estimated finish time of 2:45. I came in at 2:43:09 which isn't bad considering I had only started running in April of the same year. This year I estimated to finish in a time that I know see as a lofty goal but you have to have a goal to work toward. Even if it takes more than one time to reach. Just as long as you never give up.

The last long run I did was 10 miles and I finished it in 1 hour 39 minutes and some odd seconds. Almost a 20 minute difference in time from the previous 11 mile run. So I am praying for nice weather for Saturday and if I can run like I did for my 10 mile run I should finish anywhere between 2:10 to 2:15. A difference of 28-33 minute. That would be awesome.

There is something that I will remember when I get ready to run that my dear friend Ken told me Monday night in Zumba. Just do your best. That is the plan and as long as I do my best I will be proud of the outcome.

I am going to take a few pics at the expo to blog about the night before the race and then another one either Saturday or Sunday to share my experience running this time around versus last year's experience. So until next time.

Allow the hiccups and move on

Well, I had a few hiccups last week that prevented me from doing as planned but that is life for you. I ran last Thursday with a friend. I had only planned to run 3 miles with the Mach Tenn Running club but my friend wanted to get in 5 miles so I was like sure why not. Turned out to be a good idea but I will get to that in a minute.

I just took it easy on this run because I have been so paranoid that I will get injured. I had a nice easy 5 mile run and was able to carry on a conversation which I normally can't do. Then here is where the hiccup came along.

A couple of years ago, everyone in my family got the flu and both kids had strep throat as well. I was the only one that lucked out and didn't get the flu. However, I did have it when I was pregnant with my daughter. Since then, we have gotten the flu shot and it usually turns into a family affair. The kids will go to the pediatrician's office and get theirs. Then later that afternoon, Brad and I will go to our local pharmacy to get ours.

Later that night, my daughter Peyton had a slight reaction to the shot. She was running a fever and it seemed to take forever for it to come down. Since she was running a fever, I chose against running Saturday just to make sure she wasn't coming down with something. My husband had to work and I didn't want to risk getting other kids sick if she was contagious and not just having a reaction. (My kids usually stay in the nursery at our local rec center when I run if the hubby works.)

Thankfully, she got to feeling better and was fever free for 24 hours so she could go to church. Unfortunately even though she was feeling better, I was unable to run Sunday because Brad had to work Sunday as well. So at this point, I was very thankful I chose to run 5 miles instead of 3 miles to make sure I got a little bit of a long run done.

Since this post is getting long, I will do another one on my two short runs this week and getting everything together for the race. So until next time.

9 days & 4 runs

Some of you may be wondering what the heck the title of this post means.  Well the first number is the number of days left before the half marathon.  I have been waiting for months to say that we are in the single digits.  I have been training for this race since April and officially registered in May so it has been a long time coming.  As of right now, my team is the largest team for the half marathon with 20+ team members.  It is amazing!!!  This is all thanks to our team captain.  She has done so much to get the team together.  Including getting team shirts.  She has also been planning to get together the morning of the race for a pre race photo and a prayer before the race.  I am very thankful for all her work she has done and for taking the time to allow us to pray for everyone on our team and other runners before the race begins.

The second number in my title is the number of runs that I have left before the actually race.  I will be running 3 miles later this evening and probably another 6 miles Saturday.  That one is still up in the air.  I was wanting to get people together to run with me but I can't seem to get a time together that works for everyone so I was thinking about doing something different.  I am thinking about taking tomorrow off from any type of exercising, running 3 miles Saturday and doing 6 miles with the running group on Sunday morning.  This is only dependent on whether or not my husband has to work or not on Sunday.  It is his scheduled weekend to work and he won't know until either tomorrow or Saturday if he has to work on Sunday so that plan may get a little tweaked.  After that, the plan for next week is to do an hour to an hour and a half on the elliptical machine Monday morning. 

The reason that I would like to do this is because I have found it easier to push through those hard moments in my run.  Not to mention that it is good cross training exercise for runners.  So I want to make sure that I am able to do that one day next week since the race is Saturday.  The next day I plan to run 3-4 miles and take the next 2 days off from any type of exercising.  The plan that I have scheduled for Friday morning is going to kill me to do but I am going to try my best.  I plan to walk with a friend and kinda loosen up before the race. Then all I have to do is get the oldest one from school and drop him and baby girl off at their Granny's and then head up to get my packet and check into the hotel. 

Now that I have wrote all this out, I have just realized how busy I will be next week.  Not to mention those few things that always seem to pop up at the last minute so let's hope that everything goes well.  I am so excited about this race and I can't wait to write about how everything went so that I can share it with you.  So until next time.