It seems the Half Voyageur has given me the longer-distance-on-trails bug. I had already been eying up the Moose Mountain Marathon since earlier this year, back when I didn't think I would be needing a fall marathon to get that elusive 3:30. Now I'm looking at the schedule thinking it might be a bit much - a trail marathon on September 11, a 'road' marathon on October 9 and my first ultra (50K) on October 16. I think were I not trying for a 3:30 at Whistlestop and wanting a decent performance at Wild Duluth then it'd be not as stupid.
Actually, here's a little secret (since this isn't a Northland Runner post): I'm toying with the idea of not doing Whistlestop and doing Moose Mountain instead. This would mean, however, no Boston 2011.
I'm of a couple minds about this. I'll be doing the Florida Keys Ragnar in January which means that also doing Boston is TWO high priced races requiring flights just a few months apart. Right now I can't even afford Ragnar and I'm just hoping things work out so adding another high priced registration in October (when Boston opens up) might not even work. Boston isn't going anywhere nor is my ability to run a BQ.
On the other hand, I LOVE Boston. Even though I had a miserable time, I still had a fantastic time crazy as that is. I want to go back in Wave One and run well. I want to not be mistaken for a charity runner. I have friends from Duluth also doing Boston 2011 and a MegaTough teamie who has said she'll head out with me, too. Moose Mountain is not going anywhere. I also am trying to march my way to an ambitious future time goal and it's probably important to do another marathon this year that helps advance that.
It depends on the day as to which way I'm leaning. It also depends on if you ask me while I'm out running trails or not :) Right now, I think I'll regret it if I don't try for my 3:30 again this year so that's probably what my answer should be.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
From NR - Half Voyaguer Race Report
I'm not sure why this should be surprising but I LOVED the Half Voyageur! I had an absolute blast! Thanks a billion to Gene and all the volunteers for putting on such an awesome race. All the aid stations were great and it was wonderful to have mowed trails to run on since 26 miles of unmowed would have been much less fun.
I had no idea what kind of a pace to do once we started. It was so hard to restrain from wanting to sprint around the single line of walking that happened right away! I knew things would clear up soon enough and this was 26.2 miles, so there was plenty of time and no use fretting since no one else was. Just so strange feeling, though! So once we cleared that, we headed out on a nice wide gravely trail/road for a while. It was hard, again, to figure out the right pace. I knew the trail was going to throw plenty of nasty at us and worked about to find something comfortable. I was passing a lot of people but I figured I might as well stretch my legs out a little and find a nice pace while I could even if people ended up passing me back.
There's only a couple of spots along the way that I hadn't run before and the beginning was one of them. I didn't have a very good idea of HOW we got from the zoo up to Skyline and was going along when I found myself thinking "Gee, this looks a lot like the Rolling Stone course. But it can't be, we're much too far away, still." And then we came to the river crossing and we had, in fact, been on the course! I couldn't believe how close we were to it!
I have to say, I felt like we were cheating - getting up to Skyline should have involved some MUCH steeper climbs. I was very happy to find it all relatively easy. I walked part of a hill in there that wasn't too bad (on the Rolling Stone course somewhere, I think) but decided I would walk hills over X grade with the idea that walking when I chose early on might keep me from walking when I didn't choose later on. I think it worked pretty well.
So I loved all the nasty stuff. Jarrow's Beach was great. I had nice people in front of me who let me bounce around them, so I wasn't slowed down beyond what the course does. I wasn't expecting what it was, though - it's basically a ravine that you run in. This ravine's botton is covered in large, irregular and sharp moss covered rocks that are pretty much not runable. You just sort of bounce from rock to rock while super thankful that it's not raining because it would be so super dangerous wet. Then you come out on nice flat trail before heading right back up Skyline. On unmowed snowmoblie trail. Through what would have been knee or higher deep mud had we not detoured around into the woods. Which meant cutting your own trail and getting rather scratched up. Huzzah!
In Zapp's Loop, I passed a guy in white that I would end up playing tag with quite a bit. It seemed he was a bit stronger at the uphill and I was stronger at the downhill. I lost him for good after the Power Lines (capitalized!) and didn't see him finish so I hope I just missed him since I wasn't paying close attention.
I loved the Power Lines. I was with my guy in white and a group of three other guys came up behind us and we all went through it together which made it pretty fun. I'll admit, I was worried on the first one and had to remind myself that the rest aren't as bad. How to describe the Power Lines to those who haven't run them? The first one you are more or less on all fours for and can't believe that you'll still have something like 10 miles to go after trashing your quivering quads. They are hills you wouldn't ski down. They're scary to 'run' down, though it's more of a semi-controlled falling. After what I thought was the last one, I let out a loud holler that made my friend in white looked back at me rather like I was crazy so I explained that it was the end of the Power Lines. I was wrong. When I ran the course with Lisa, Ron and Shaun earlier, we had missed the turn back in and I didn't realize there was more. My friend (damn, I wish I had asked his name), also being a newbie to the race, didn't correct me and, in fact, told me to go around him since I seemed to have energy :) I felt so bad when I came out to see one more hill to go down and up! I was sure I'd have a chance to apologize since he was stronger on the uphill but he never caught me again. So if you're reading this, friend in white with a backpack water carrier, thanks for the fun and I'm sorry to have mislead you!
Coming up that last Power Line hill, I had a Northwoods teamie tell me I was in third! Third! I wasn't even thinking about placement (beyond being excited when passing a woman on the way up Zapp's Loop) so I was shocked to hear it. I decided to be happy but try not to dwell on it and keep doing my thing.
Here I am at the Grand Portage aid station (just after the Power Lines) saying "Did you say frozen grapes?!" They were amazing, by the way. How Eve managed to keep them frozen is a mystery but I loved them! I had decided to throw water on my head at this station after the heat of the Power Lines (no shade!) only to have the grapes make me forget :)
I didn't mind the miles and miles of up after the Grand Portage aid station too much. It was very pretty and I tried to focus on making the conscious decision to walk instead of letting the course beat me into walking without noticing. Coming into the next aid station, I knew I needed some sort of salty stuff. I tried a cracker but it wasn't good so I just poured some salt straight into my hand and licked it up. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. More frozen grapes.
I think I was mentally the worst off on the ski trails right before coming onto the Munger the first time - something about a ski trail makes a slow pace feel so much slower and more painful. I felt like I was putzing along and barely moving and luckily came up on Shane then. I was sad to see him since it meant he wasn't having a good day but it was nice to know that other runners struggling at that point, too.
Then came Forbay's Lake! Right after entering the trail on the other side of the road, I felt like throwing up. I was 100% sure I was going to - the saliva in the mouth, the fake heat, all of it! But nothing. I tried to run but it just jiggled everything and was miserable. That whole section the ski trails was rough - I could barely run downhill and was excited for uphill since that meant I had 'permission' to walk. It was in here that a woman went by me, putting me in 4th. I think she might have passed me even had I not been nauseous, though, because she was moving pretty strong. I think her name was Amanda? We chatted back on Jarrow's Beach and she's super nice. Sadly, I was not very coherent as she went by me here but I at least managed a "good job" I tried to take a gel but it just wasn't happening which makes me think maybe my body was over-carbed? I've read that taking in more than your stomach can handle can cause you to feel like hurling. I think I need to scale back to every 45 or 50 minutes instead of every 40. I found Kyle as my stomach was settling back down right before Jay Cooke but I handed off my opened gel since I didn't want any anymore. I still had a couple in reserve, so I figured I'd be fine.
Well, I probably should have made myself take another gel because those last 3 1/2 miles were sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long. Holy man. Well, I thought it was only 3 miles so that made it worse, too. In hind sight, I think a good deal of my stumbling about was a sign of needing more food and I ended up with 2 left over gels not counting the one I didn't really take when I should have only had one left over (I threw in an extra in case something happened and I was out on the trail much longer that I anticipated). Which means I should have taken one somewhere and completely forgot. It turns out to be harder than expected to keep track of taking fuel when you don't have a water station every couple of miles to base it off of. I think I added up my 40 minutes wrong somewhere in there, too, which is rather embarrassing to think about. Perhaps setting my watch timer to go off isn't such a bad idea.
So those last 3 1/2 miles had lots of stumbling and trying to run in between rocks and roots. Thinking to myself "Okay. 5th woman is running right now. YOU have to run." Which is the only time I was at all trying to be competitive. In fact, right before Seven Bridges (about half way in), I ended up in-between my guy in white and another women (guess I was second woman at that point) and I realized "Hey. This is making me race and I don't want to race right now. I want to enjoy this." So I let her go by and had a great time by myself on the trails. In fact, with a rare exception, every time I started hurting I took a look around and remembered how awesome trail running is and it helped me enjoy again.
I came in smiling (with eyes closed, of course!) and collected my awesome 4th woman mug. Also! A women kitty-corner from the finish had her hose hooked up to a shower head-like attachment and was letting runners take showers, which was fantastic. I really had wanted to go swimming as I was stumbling along next to the river but this was pretty good too.
Only one complaint about this race! Shirt size options were large and extra-large. I tried in vain to shrink my shirt so I might have to turn it into a bag.
I'll be back next year for sure! I was so happy the whole time that I decided to do it. I'm afraid I might be hooked on longer trail races!
I had no idea what kind of a pace to do once we started. It was so hard to restrain from wanting to sprint around the single line of walking that happened right away! I knew things would clear up soon enough and this was 26.2 miles, so there was plenty of time and no use fretting since no one else was. Just so strange feeling, though! So once we cleared that, we headed out on a nice wide gravely trail/road for a while. It was hard, again, to figure out the right pace. I knew the trail was going to throw plenty of nasty at us and worked about to find something comfortable. I was passing a lot of people but I figured I might as well stretch my legs out a little and find a nice pace while I could even if people ended up passing me back.
There's only a couple of spots along the way that I hadn't run before and the beginning was one of them. I didn't have a very good idea of HOW we got from the zoo up to Skyline and was going along when I found myself thinking "Gee, this looks a lot like the Rolling Stone course. But it can't be, we're much too far away, still." And then we came to the river crossing and we had, in fact, been on the course! I couldn't believe how close we were to it!
I have to say, I felt like we were cheating - getting up to Skyline should have involved some MUCH steeper climbs. I was very happy to find it all relatively easy. I walked part of a hill in there that wasn't too bad (on the Rolling Stone course somewhere, I think) but decided I would walk hills over X grade with the idea that walking when I chose early on might keep me from walking when I didn't choose later on. I think it worked pretty well.
So I loved all the nasty stuff. Jarrow's Beach was great. I had nice people in front of me who let me bounce around them, so I wasn't slowed down beyond what the course does. I wasn't expecting what it was, though - it's basically a ravine that you run in. This ravine's botton is covered in large, irregular and sharp moss covered rocks that are pretty much not runable. You just sort of bounce from rock to rock while super thankful that it's not raining because it would be so super dangerous wet. Then you come out on nice flat trail before heading right back up Skyline. On unmowed snowmoblie trail. Through what would have been knee or higher deep mud had we not detoured around into the woods. Which meant cutting your own trail and getting rather scratched up. Huzzah!
In Zapp's Loop, I passed a guy in white that I would end up playing tag with quite a bit. It seemed he was a bit stronger at the uphill and I was stronger at the downhill. I lost him for good after the Power Lines (capitalized!) and didn't see him finish so I hope I just missed him since I wasn't paying close attention.
I loved the Power Lines. I was with my guy in white and a group of three other guys came up behind us and we all went through it together which made it pretty fun. I'll admit, I was worried on the first one and had to remind myself that the rest aren't as bad. How to describe the Power Lines to those who haven't run them? The first one you are more or less on all fours for and can't believe that you'll still have something like 10 miles to go after trashing your quivering quads. They are hills you wouldn't ski down. They're scary to 'run' down, though it's more of a semi-controlled falling. After what I thought was the last one, I let out a loud holler that made my friend in white looked back at me rather like I was crazy so I explained that it was the end of the Power Lines. I was wrong. When I ran the course with Lisa, Ron and Shaun earlier, we had missed the turn back in and I didn't realize there was more. My friend (damn, I wish I had asked his name), also being a newbie to the race, didn't correct me and, in fact, told me to go around him since I seemed to have energy :) I felt so bad when I came out to see one more hill to go down and up! I was sure I'd have a chance to apologize since he was stronger on the uphill but he never caught me again. So if you're reading this, friend in white with a backpack water carrier, thanks for the fun and I'm sorry to have mislead you!
Coming up that last Power Line hill, I had a Northwoods teamie tell me I was in third! Third! I wasn't even thinking about placement (beyond being excited when passing a woman on the way up Zapp's Loop) so I was shocked to hear it. I decided to be happy but try not to dwell on it and keep doing my thing.
Here I am at the Grand Portage aid station (just after the Power Lines) saying "Did you say frozen grapes?!" They were amazing, by the way. How Eve managed to keep them frozen is a mystery but I loved them! I had decided to throw water on my head at this station after the heat of the Power Lines (no shade!) only to have the grapes make me forget :)
I didn't mind the miles and miles of up after the Grand Portage aid station too much. It was very pretty and I tried to focus on making the conscious decision to walk instead of letting the course beat me into walking without noticing. Coming into the next aid station, I knew I needed some sort of salty stuff. I tried a cracker but it wasn't good so I just poured some salt straight into my hand and licked it up. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. More frozen grapes.
I think I was mentally the worst off on the ski trails right before coming onto the Munger the first time - something about a ski trail makes a slow pace feel so much slower and more painful. I felt like I was putzing along and barely moving and luckily came up on Shane then. I was sad to see him since it meant he wasn't having a good day but it was nice to know that other runners struggling at that point, too.
Then came Forbay's Lake! Right after entering the trail on the other side of the road, I felt like throwing up. I was 100% sure I was going to - the saliva in the mouth, the fake heat, all of it! But nothing. I tried to run but it just jiggled everything and was miserable. That whole section the ski trails was rough - I could barely run downhill and was excited for uphill since that meant I had 'permission' to walk. It was in here that a woman went by me, putting me in 4th. I think she might have passed me even had I not been nauseous, though, because she was moving pretty strong. I think her name was Amanda? We chatted back on Jarrow's Beach and she's super nice. Sadly, I was not very coherent as she went by me here but I at least managed a "good job" I tried to take a gel but it just wasn't happening which makes me think maybe my body was over-carbed? I've read that taking in more than your stomach can handle can cause you to feel like hurling. I think I need to scale back to every 45 or 50 minutes instead of every 40. I found Kyle as my stomach was settling back down right before Jay Cooke but I handed off my opened gel since I didn't want any anymore. I still had a couple in reserve, so I figured I'd be fine.
Well, I probably should have made myself take another gel because those last 3 1/2 miles were sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long. Holy man. Well, I thought it was only 3 miles so that made it worse, too. In hind sight, I think a good deal of my stumbling about was a sign of needing more food and I ended up with 2 left over gels not counting the one I didn't really take when I should have only had one left over (I threw in an extra in case something happened and I was out on the trail much longer that I anticipated). Which means I should have taken one somewhere and completely forgot. It turns out to be harder than expected to keep track of taking fuel when you don't have a water station every couple of miles to base it off of. I think I added up my 40 minutes wrong somewhere in there, too, which is rather embarrassing to think about. Perhaps setting my watch timer to go off isn't such a bad idea.
So those last 3 1/2 miles had lots of stumbling and trying to run in between rocks and roots. Thinking to myself "Okay. 5th woman is running right now. YOU have to run." Which is the only time I was at all trying to be competitive. In fact, right before Seven Bridges (about half way in), I ended up in-between my guy in white and another women (guess I was second woman at that point) and I realized "Hey. This is making me race and I don't want to race right now. I want to enjoy this." So I let her go by and had a great time by myself on the trails. In fact, with a rare exception, every time I started hurting I took a look around and remembered how awesome trail running is and it helped me enjoy again.
I came in smiling (with eyes closed, of course!) and collected my awesome 4th woman mug. Also! A women kitty-corner from the finish had her hose hooked up to a shower head-like attachment and was letting runners take showers, which was fantastic. I really had wanted to go swimming as I was stumbling along next to the river but this was pretty good too.
Only one complaint about this race! Shirt size options were large and extra-large. I tried in vain to shrink my shirt so I might have to turn it into a bag.
I'll be back next year for sure! I was so happy the whole time that I decided to do it. I'm afraid I might be hooked on longer trail races!
Friday, July 9, 2010
From NR: Time for a trail marathon!
Okay. So, I've talked about running the Half Voyageur for the last couple of years but always backed out of it by the time it came around. Often for heat related concerns. Last year, I wanted to try a three-peat at a 5K near Grand Rapids (foiled!). This year I almost signed up for it before Grandma's but decided to wait and see how Grandma's treated me, always a smart move, knowing how Grandma's has trashed my body before. Then I didn't sign up right away afterward, either, even though I was feeling fine. But. I did request the weekend off from work specifically for the race.
The closer it got, the more I started waffling. My legs haven't felt all that fantastic recently, though they felt great almost immediately after Grandma's. So they're probably just tired because I've been upping my miles back up to where I want them and have gone back to lifting and swimming after taking a break just before and for a full week after the race. Even so, I've been thinking that 26 miles of trails just sounds evil.
And then there's the weather. It's been so hot and humid. Yuck. But! I've been running in it. It's been gross, but I've still been out there. Sometimes waiting specifically until 11, if my work schedule allowed, so that it's a little hotter so that I get used to it more. I'm much better then I have been, but I still feel as though I have less heat/humidity tolerance than the normal person which doesn't translate well to a hot and humid race. Happily, it starts at 6am!
Next add in that I don't get all my weekends off. This is my last weekend off that I don't have booked up for other things for a while. I want to go to my parents house and see them and my grandma. My aunt, uncle and cousin from Montana will also be around this weekend. My sister and nephew are home. My close high school friends are going on a short canoeing trip this weekend. I wanted to go home instead.
There were several times in the last couple of weeks where I was sure I wasn't going to race this weekend. And then I would decide that I really DID want to run it but then I would think about the weather and going home. My sister was also trying to get her little guy baptized this weekend while she was home and since Kyle and I are the god-parents (of the cutest little boy in the world!) it's pretty important for us to be there! Well, my sister called me yesterday and I don't think I realized how much I wanted to race until she said that she HAD been able to arrange for the baptism to happen and my heart sank. And then she said that it wasn't until almost 5 on Saturday and I was super happy again! I could race in the morning, shower at Jay Cooke and then head home in plenty of time. Huzzah!
So that is my plan! I was super hyper last night once I figured out a plan and Kyle okayed his role in the logistics.
Of course, I usually have the full week before a race to spread my nerves out. Suddenly deciding 33 hours beforehand that a race is going to happen made my nerves pounce this morning! It's all very ridiculous, though, as I have nothing to be nervous about. There's no time goal, no placement goal, I'm just heading out for a 26 mile trail run with a bunch of friends. So why did I wake up with my stomach all a flutter? I'm so happy, again, that I found something I can eat race day mornings even with an unsettled stomach. Three cheers for Boost - as I told a friends this morning, it's a tasty and much less fiber filled variety of Ensure!
So good luck to everyone racing this weekend, in the Half Voyageur or anything else out there. I'll be sure and post a report much faster than I got my Grandma's report out!
The closer it got, the more I started waffling. My legs haven't felt all that fantastic recently, though they felt great almost immediately after Grandma's. So they're probably just tired because I've been upping my miles back up to where I want them and have gone back to lifting and swimming after taking a break just before and for a full week after the race. Even so, I've been thinking that 26 miles of trails just sounds evil.
And then there's the weather. It's been so hot and humid. Yuck. But! I've been running in it. It's been gross, but I've still been out there. Sometimes waiting specifically until 11, if my work schedule allowed, so that it's a little hotter so that I get used to it more. I'm much better then I have been, but I still feel as though I have less heat/humidity tolerance than the normal person which doesn't translate well to a hot and humid race. Happily, it starts at 6am!
Next add in that I don't get all my weekends off. This is my last weekend off that I don't have booked up for other things for a while. I want to go to my parents house and see them and my grandma. My aunt, uncle and cousin from Montana will also be around this weekend. My sister and nephew are home. My close high school friends are going on a short canoeing trip this weekend. I wanted to go home instead.
There were several times in the last couple of weeks where I was sure I wasn't going to race this weekend. And then I would decide that I really DID want to run it but then I would think about the weather and going home. My sister was also trying to get her little guy baptized this weekend while she was home and since Kyle and I are the god-parents (of the cutest little boy in the world!) it's pretty important for us to be there! Well, my sister called me yesterday and I don't think I realized how much I wanted to race until she said that she HAD been able to arrange for the baptism to happen and my heart sank. And then she said that it wasn't until almost 5 on Saturday and I was super happy again! I could race in the morning, shower at Jay Cooke and then head home in plenty of time. Huzzah!
So that is my plan! I was super hyper last night once I figured out a plan and Kyle okayed his role in the logistics.
Of course, I usually have the full week before a race to spread my nerves out. Suddenly deciding 33 hours beforehand that a race is going to happen made my nerves pounce this morning! It's all very ridiculous, though, as I have nothing to be nervous about. There's no time goal, no placement goal, I'm just heading out for a 26 mile trail run with a bunch of friends. So why did I wake up with my stomach all a flutter? I'm so happy, again, that I found something I can eat race day mornings even with an unsettled stomach. Three cheers for Boost - as I told a friends this morning, it's a tasty and much less fiber filled variety of Ensure!
So good luck to everyone racing this weekend, in the Half Voyageur or anything else out there. I'll be sure and post a report much faster than I got my Grandma's report out!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
From NR: Finally, my Grandma's Report!
Hmmm. It's been a while again, hasn't it? This was a harder race report to write - I don't think I've been more disappointed immediately after a race. Don't worry, though, I'm not dwelling much, now and I know some good things came out of it this year.
So . . . let's start with the good things:
~ No matter how miserable I was feeling, the individual miles never dragged. I never felt as though I was making no progress.
~ While walking definitely occurred, never for very long and I ran the entire last 3 miles.
~ I have never felt stronger at a Grandma's finish.
~ Despite feeling as though there was NO possible way to take another gel and not throw it right back up, I ate every one on schedule and had no problems at all with them. Which means I've finally found fuel that will work no matter the weather conditions - huzzah!
~ I met an awesome runner around 16 or 17 who chatted with me (well, mostly TO me since I couldn't talk much, but I really appreciated it!) for a few miles. I finally let her go just as we were getting into town so I hope she did what she wanted.
~ I recovered at the finish (and after the race) fairly quickly.
On to race day:
I woke up Saturday morning at the campground and . . . I could see the lake! I did a little dance - seeing the lake means the humidity isn't so ridiculous. Non-ridiculous humidity was something I could handle. Time for food. Now, I don't think I've talked about all my experimenting for race day breakfast this training go-round. The last couple of years, my stomach/nerves seem to have gotten worse and worse - on race day morning, I can barely eat anything be it a marathon or a 5K. Now, it's okay to just get down a piece of toast for a 5K but it's not such a good idea for longer races and I've been trying to figure out what my stomach might tolerate come race morning. I've been doing Malt-O-Meal the last couple of years but, again, come race morning I can only get down about half of what I usually eat. Plus there's the whole - 'oh shit! My hotel room doesn't have a microwave!' problem. I'd read some things about meal replacement beverages being a good thing to try, so I experimented with a couple varieties and found that strawberry flavored Boost works great! Plus - it requires no prep so it's stress free and easily packable. Come race morning, I had no problem drinking it all down - great news!
I had laid out all my race clothes the night before and brought them out for dressing. Hmmmmm. Where are my pace bands? I printed them off, grabbed the tape to laminate them and I'm sure they made it in my bag. Hmmmmm. Can't find them anywhere. Okay. No problem. I know I need to run 8:12s for a 3:35 and even 8s for a 3:30 so I know where abouts I need to be without the band.
I had been thinking about having my parents just drop me off on the side of the highway across from the starting area. I get so annoyed waiting for the buses to slowly drive down to the drop off area. It takes a couple of minutes to get to the starting area from the pickup spot and then it takes 15 minutes to hang out there waiting until they let us off. Really, though, I get on the first bus out of the Super One lot in Two Harbors so there's plenty of time so I decided to follow the rules and take the bus. Good Sam.
Time to jump right into the porta-potty line. Get to the front, take my turn and head right back to the back of the line. I figured I didn't have anything better to do :) Connie joined the line next to me and slightly behind. Showing my usual flair for picking the worst line, Connie got through her line several minutes before me. In fact, when I hard the Star Spangled Banner going on, I decided to ditch the line and head to the start so I wouldn't miss the jet fly-over. Going by the number of people still in line, I'm not sure how they all made it through before the start. Since it was lower humidity and the sun was hiding at the start with some threatening looking clouds, I decided against the small water bottle I brought. I think that was a good decision - I didn't have to carry it around and I never really needed it. It's super comfortable but why carry what you don't need to, right? So all I needed to carry was my homemade gel pouch in my left hand. I shall update with details later!
My "stars align" goal was 3:30 and lining up at the start, I was pretty confident. I felt good, the weather looked great and I might as well just start at that pace and see what happens and how long it felt good. I think it probably would have been smarter to stick to 3:35 pace from the beginning (a difference of about 12 seconds/mile) but who knows what that would have changed. I wanted to hang out just behind the 3:30 pace balloons but could only find the 3:40 pacers in the starting crowd. I found a nice open spot a decent amount in front of them, though, and ran into Connie again. It was nice to be next to a friend at the start.
Off goes the starting horn and away we go!
My first couple miles are a little fast and I realize I'm catching up to the 3:30 balloons faster than I should so I back off a bit. I find my pace and hang out just behind the wall of people that make up the 3:30 group. Things go along pretty smoothly, actually: 7:47, 7:53, 7:56, 8:02, 8:02, 8:08, 8:03, 8:14, 8:18, 8:07. I'm comfortable where I'm at and feel strong. Then, all of a sudden, comes mile 11. Nothing too traumatic, I just suddenly look up and realize the balloons look further ahead of me and my watch is saying 8:31. Strange. The next mile - not any better. Suddenly, my body is acting strange and not responding. I tried not to really panic, since it was early on but I was nauseous and finding it hard to breathe and so it would continue for most of the rest of the race.
It was really, really frustrating. I felt as though my body was acting like it was hot and humid out and here it was, a perfectly lovely day. Okay, it wasn't PERFECT weather, but it was pretty damn nice and loads better than it has been in the past so what was up? I'm not sure at all and I don't like it. This is my first marathon that went wrong where I haven't been to pinpoint exactly WHAT went wrong. I was frustrated with myself and disappointed at my inability to get it back in as I fell further and further back. I've had plenty of training runs where there's some iffy miles that I just have to plow through and then I come out the other end of it just fine. Well, I didn't seem to be able to plow through this very strongly at all and wasn't feeling any better and was reduced to just plugging along. The outsides of both my knees were extremely sore the rest of the day, probably due to the strange shuffle I was doing.
One thing that was nice was making it to Lemon Drop (after being disappointed again by the orange slices right beforehand) only to easily run my way up it thinking how it wasn't much of a hill at all. Then, at about 3 miles left (a bit after Lemon Drop), I was 99% sure that puking was finally going to happen (this is also where I confess to thinking about taking one of those offered beer samples on London Road, just to make myself hurl and get it over with. Happily, I resisted the momentary urge!). I moved to the side and assumed the Stance (you know what I'm talking about!) but it was not to be. Okay, back into I go and then ran every step of the last three miles a million times stronger then I had been.
It's pretty fun to do those last miles while feeling not completely miserable - the crowds are massive, the downhill is so nice and I was passing tons and tons of people. However, I was pissed that I was suddenly able to go and worried that the stronger feeling wouldn't last long but decided that at this point, the plan was to go as strong as possible until I couldn't. As it turned out, I could push it good all the way in. I couldn't believe it when I got a nasty, nasty sideache less than half a mile from the finish, though. But, really, I think the only surprising part now is that I didn't get one before with all the difficulty breathing I was having. Well. Who cares if you can't breathe, there's half a mile left. I had long been promising myself that at the finish I could finally let myself hurl and let myself cry so I might as well add letting myself double over to gasp for breath to that. Happily at the finish, there was no hurling and no doubling over. I did have Tonya to hang on for a minute, though.
So the Grandma's curse stands. I'm not happy with a 4:07 when I wanted a 3:35 but this was my fastest Grandma's so far so maybe I'm chipping away at the curse little by little. Maybe next time around I'll smash through it! Right now, I'm a bit peeved that I have do a fall marathon, now, if I want to do Boston next spring. I was starting to think about Moose Mountain but I think that's a bad idea if I have to do a road marathon, too. My original backup was Fox Cities but . . . it's a lot more expensive then just doing Whistlestop. So, despite it being the weekend before Wild Duluth, I think that's going to be my plan. But we all know how well I make decisions . . .
So . . . let's start with the good things:
~ No matter how miserable I was feeling, the individual miles never dragged. I never felt as though I was making no progress.
~ While walking definitely occurred, never for very long and I ran the entire last 3 miles.
~ I have never felt stronger at a Grandma's finish.
~ Despite feeling as though there was NO possible way to take another gel and not throw it right back up, I ate every one on schedule and had no problems at all with them. Which means I've finally found fuel that will work no matter the weather conditions - huzzah!
~ I met an awesome runner around 16 or 17 who chatted with me (well, mostly TO me since I couldn't talk much, but I really appreciated it!) for a few miles. I finally let her go just as we were getting into town so I hope she did what she wanted.
~ I recovered at the finish (and after the race) fairly quickly.
On to race day:
I woke up Saturday morning at the campground and . . . I could see the lake! I did a little dance - seeing the lake means the humidity isn't so ridiculous. Non-ridiculous humidity was something I could handle. Time for food. Now, I don't think I've talked about all my experimenting for race day breakfast this training go-round. The last couple of years, my stomach/nerves seem to have gotten worse and worse - on race day morning, I can barely eat anything be it a marathon or a 5K. Now, it's okay to just get down a piece of toast for a 5K but it's not such a good idea for longer races and I've been trying to figure out what my stomach might tolerate come race morning. I've been doing Malt-O-Meal the last couple of years but, again, come race morning I can only get down about half of what I usually eat. Plus there's the whole - 'oh shit! My hotel room doesn't have a microwave!' problem. I'd read some things about meal replacement beverages being a good thing to try, so I experimented with a couple varieties and found that strawberry flavored Boost works great! Plus - it requires no prep so it's stress free and easily packable. Come race morning, I had no problem drinking it all down - great news!
I had laid out all my race clothes the night before and brought them out for dressing. Hmmmmm. Where are my pace bands? I printed them off, grabbed the tape to laminate them and I'm sure they made it in my bag. Hmmmmm. Can't find them anywhere. Okay. No problem. I know I need to run 8:12s for a 3:35 and even 8s for a 3:30 so I know where abouts I need to be without the band.
I had been thinking about having my parents just drop me off on the side of the highway across from the starting area. I get so annoyed waiting for the buses to slowly drive down to the drop off area. It takes a couple of minutes to get to the starting area from the pickup spot and then it takes 15 minutes to hang out there waiting until they let us off. Really, though, I get on the first bus out of the Super One lot in Two Harbors so there's plenty of time so I decided to follow the rules and take the bus. Good Sam.
Time to jump right into the porta-potty line. Get to the front, take my turn and head right back to the back of the line. I figured I didn't have anything better to do :) Connie joined the line next to me and slightly behind. Showing my usual flair for picking the worst line, Connie got through her line several minutes before me. In fact, when I hard the Star Spangled Banner going on, I decided to ditch the line and head to the start so I wouldn't miss the jet fly-over. Going by the number of people still in line, I'm not sure how they all made it through before the start. Since it was lower humidity and the sun was hiding at the start with some threatening looking clouds, I decided against the small water bottle I brought. I think that was a good decision - I didn't have to carry it around and I never really needed it. It's super comfortable but why carry what you don't need to, right? So all I needed to carry was my homemade gel pouch in my left hand. I shall update with details later!
My "stars align" goal was 3:30 and lining up at the start, I was pretty confident. I felt good, the weather looked great and I might as well just start at that pace and see what happens and how long it felt good. I think it probably would have been smarter to stick to 3:35 pace from the beginning (a difference of about 12 seconds/mile) but who knows what that would have changed. I wanted to hang out just behind the 3:30 pace balloons but could only find the 3:40 pacers in the starting crowd. I found a nice open spot a decent amount in front of them, though, and ran into Connie again. It was nice to be next to a friend at the start.
Off goes the starting horn and away we go!
My first couple miles are a little fast and I realize I'm catching up to the 3:30 balloons faster than I should so I back off a bit. I find my pace and hang out just behind the wall of people that make up the 3:30 group. Things go along pretty smoothly, actually: 7:47, 7:53, 7:56, 8:02, 8:02, 8:08, 8:03, 8:14, 8:18, 8:07. I'm comfortable where I'm at and feel strong. Then, all of a sudden, comes mile 11. Nothing too traumatic, I just suddenly look up and realize the balloons look further ahead of me and my watch is saying 8:31. Strange. The next mile - not any better. Suddenly, my body is acting strange and not responding. I tried not to really panic, since it was early on but I was nauseous and finding it hard to breathe and so it would continue for most of the rest of the race.
It was really, really frustrating. I felt as though my body was acting like it was hot and humid out and here it was, a perfectly lovely day. Okay, it wasn't PERFECT weather, but it was pretty damn nice and loads better than it has been in the past so what was up? I'm not sure at all and I don't like it. This is my first marathon that went wrong where I haven't been to pinpoint exactly WHAT went wrong. I was frustrated with myself and disappointed at my inability to get it back in as I fell further and further back. I've had plenty of training runs where there's some iffy miles that I just have to plow through and then I come out the other end of it just fine. Well, I didn't seem to be able to plow through this very strongly at all and wasn't feeling any better and was reduced to just plugging along. The outsides of both my knees were extremely sore the rest of the day, probably due to the strange shuffle I was doing.
One thing that was nice was making it to Lemon Drop (after being disappointed again by the orange slices right beforehand) only to easily run my way up it thinking how it wasn't much of a hill at all. Then, at about 3 miles left (a bit after Lemon Drop), I was 99% sure that puking was finally going to happen (this is also where I confess to thinking about taking one of those offered beer samples on London Road, just to make myself hurl and get it over with. Happily, I resisted the momentary urge!). I moved to the side and assumed the Stance (you know what I'm talking about!) but it was not to be. Okay, back into I go and then ran every step of the last three miles a million times stronger then I had been.
It's pretty fun to do those last miles while feeling not completely miserable - the crowds are massive, the downhill is so nice and I was passing tons and tons of people. However, I was pissed that I was suddenly able to go and worried that the stronger feeling wouldn't last long but decided that at this point, the plan was to go as strong as possible until I couldn't. As it turned out, I could push it good all the way in. I couldn't believe it when I got a nasty, nasty sideache less than half a mile from the finish, though. But, really, I think the only surprising part now is that I didn't get one before with all the difficulty breathing I was having. Well. Who cares if you can't breathe, there's half a mile left. I had long been promising myself that at the finish I could finally let myself hurl and let myself cry so I might as well add letting myself double over to gasp for breath to that. Happily at the finish, there was no hurling and no doubling over. I did have Tonya to hang on for a minute, though.
So the Grandma's curse stands. I'm not happy with a 4:07 when I wanted a 3:35 but this was my fastest Grandma's so far so maybe I'm chipping away at the curse little by little. Maybe next time around I'll smash through it! Right now, I'm a bit peeved that I have do a fall marathon, now, if I want to do Boston next spring. I was starting to think about Moose Mountain but I think that's a bad idea if I have to do a road marathon, too. My original backup was Fox Cities but . . . it's a lot more expensive then just doing Whistlestop. So, despite it being the weekend before Wild Duluth, I think that's going to be my plan. But we all know how well I make decisions . . .
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Hehe. Oops
I successfully wasted all of my time tonight working on a side project of my Father's Day present. I now need to pack and also finish my gel carrier tomorrow before leaving instead of tonight. Oops. The good thing is that, really, I live right here. If something gets forgotten and I realize this in Two Harbors, I have all day Friday to make it right.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
New blog look!
Okay, I re-did. I loved the other background I had (trees) but it was very busy. I like the simpler style of this one so far. Any thoughts?
From NR: Soon!
4 days! Though, it feels as though it MUST be later than Tuesday right now!
You can track me (or anyone else running), should you desire, by email or text message. Head here and enter in my name. It doesn't say how often they send updates and I don't know how many timing mats they have on the course now. I remember one at halfway and one at 20 miles, I think but there's probably more now, if they're doing the tracking thing.
So, weather. Looks great! Of course, you knew I was going to say that already, didn't you? Because no matter what it turns to, it's going to look great. Hehe. Every day the last couple of weeks has been some version of "Okay. If it's like this on race morning, then what am I going to wear?" I know pretty much what I'm going to wear (my Northwoods jersey, green, and my black shorts) but it's the little accessories that depend on weather the most. Arm warmers for rain? Hat for rain or sun? Little water bottle for extra water in heat or humidity? I'll be packing every little thing for camping, I guess - we camp in Two Harbors with my parents before Grandma's. Though, I have had the offer of a friend's house for the night before and the temptation of a bed instead of the ground sounds lovely . . .
Turns out I'll have to pay close attention to putting on my new shoes. The left foot needs to be tied super loose or else it cuts right across a nerve and makes my foot go numb. Lovely. I'll just have to make super sure before I start Saturday that it's tied right. It might be another good day for duct taping the shoelaces, too - no way I'm stopping to tie shoes, though I don't think I'm going to have that problem with these shoes. Something excited about them, though? The tongue stays where it's supposed to! Such a little thing that's so wonderful!
Things to do!
- Make sure all of my running clothes are clean, pack them
- Print out yet another pace band. Should the weather corporate, my goal is a 3:35!
- Finish making my holder for my gels. It's all figured out thanks to my mom (yay, Mom!), now I just have to finish it.
- Buy race day fuel
- Do a little dance!
You can track me (or anyone else running), should you desire, by email or text message. Head here and enter in my name. It doesn't say how often they send updates and I don't know how many timing mats they have on the course now. I remember one at halfway and one at 20 miles, I think but there's probably more now, if they're doing the tracking thing.
So, weather. Looks great! Of course, you knew I was going to say that already, didn't you? Because no matter what it turns to, it's going to look great. Hehe. Every day the last couple of weeks has been some version of "Okay. If it's like this on race morning, then what am I going to wear?" I know pretty much what I'm going to wear (my Northwoods jersey, green, and my black shorts) but it's the little accessories that depend on weather the most. Arm warmers for rain? Hat for rain or sun? Little water bottle for extra water in heat or humidity? I'll be packing every little thing for camping, I guess - we camp in Two Harbors with my parents before Grandma's. Though, I have had the offer of a friend's house for the night before and the temptation of a bed instead of the ground sounds lovely . . .
Turns out I'll have to pay close attention to putting on my new shoes. The left foot needs to be tied super loose or else it cuts right across a nerve and makes my foot go numb. Lovely. I'll just have to make super sure before I start Saturday that it's tied right. It might be another good day for duct taping the shoelaces, too - no way I'm stopping to tie shoes, though I don't think I'm going to have that problem with these shoes. Something excited about them, though? The tongue stays where it's supposed to! Such a little thing that's so wonderful!
Things to do!
- Make sure all of my running clothes are clean, pack them
- Print out yet another pace band. Should the weather corporate, my goal is a 3:35!
- Finish making my holder for my gels. It's all figured out thanks to my mom (yay, Mom!), now I just have to finish it.
- Buy race day fuel
- Do a little dance!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
From NR: Three-peat!
10 days! Which means, starting tomorrow, we can officially start haunting the weather.com website! Here's my thought for this year, though - I'm ready. No matter what I see the weather changing to, I'm going to say "Good! I can handle that!"
My 22 miler went fantastic last week, which leaves me super excited for Grandma's! I purposefully picked a brutal (for roads) course, lengthening a 17 miler that I did a couple years ago. Once again, silly me goes about adding on roads via googlemap without checking out what those roads are like. The result? Even more rolling evil hilliness than I expected. Okay, no problem, the goal was to keep strong, know it was going to be hard and not worry about time
So it all started with running up Highland/Getchell/Stebner. Luckily, it's about 2 miles from my house, so I got some warmup before all the uphill started. Last time I ran up Highland, I needed to walk - not so this time! I just kept plugging my way up the hill. And up and up and up. By the time I hit Morris Thomas, I was trying to remember what it was like to not be running uphill. The weather wasn't too bad for the start but it got pretty hot by the end. I had Kyle meet me just after half way for a water re-fill and luckily, I threw my hat in the bag I had him bring so I nabbed that for the rest of the run and headed up Haines to Morris Thomas and on and on until Lavaque. Lavaque is an evil road! Evil! You just keep going up and up into Proctor. I had misread my elevation map, too, apparently, because I sure remember there NOT being any uphill on the St. Louis River road. Well. So much for that! But I kept plugging away and felt fine. Let me tell you, though, running DOWN Highland at mile 20 is crazy painful. Wow. I went faster once I came off the downhill then I was able to do going down.
The 3rd Boulderdash 5K was this Saturday! The weather was great again and I was hopeful for a three-peat. Maybe the third time would be a charm (I had two other races that I won twice and then had some speedster show up on my third go-around). I talked Lisa into coming with and we showed up nice and early only to find out that they changed the course on me! Sneaky race directors. So I headed out to do the course backwards as a warm-up. I've found that longer warm-ups are good for shorter races and I like to know where 800 from the finish is at. Hmmm, the course is much hillier than it used to be. Of course, it was pretty pancake flat for most of it, so a hill increase wasn't terrible.
I get back from my warm-up and . . . Connie is there! Hmmm, again. Well, she's in the middle of a long run so let's not call the race until we run. And we're off with the quacking of a duck call - one of my favorite race starts. If nothing else, I figured I should be able to run faster than last year, so I tried to take off from the start. Well much longer and up comes Connie, though I didn't recognize her breathing and stride at all until she said something. And away goes Connie. So much for my three-peat. Now wait a minute, I tell myself, just stay in contact and see what happens.
They mark the kilometers on this course and I'm starting to think that I really prefer that. Sure there's more of them, but they go by faster and they really worked well with my thinking this race. I was excited to catch up to Connie towards the end and then the goal was to bring it hard into the finish so it wouldn't end up being a sprint race in.
So - three-peat! Which kind of makes me sound like a high school boy's basketball team, but I'm okay with that :) I even ran a faster time than last year, even with the harder course. My buddy Mike got third in his age group and Lisa got second in hers behind Connie who won her age group and came second for women overall. The race was awesome, as always - one of my favorites of the year. This year's trophies were agates with a wood cut backing - very nice! It's a great event in a gorgeous setting that's definitely worth the drive. The shirts were nice again this year, too. A different gold/brown color with a running shoe made of boulders. I made sure to look at last year's shirt before ordering my size, too, so it fits me well this year.
And now we come to taper time! Time to break out Marathon Woman for another read through.
My 22 miler went fantastic last week, which leaves me super excited for Grandma's! I purposefully picked a brutal (for roads) course, lengthening a 17 miler that I did a couple years ago. Once again, silly me goes about adding on roads via googlemap without checking out what those roads are like. The result? Even more rolling evil hilliness than I expected. Okay, no problem, the goal was to keep strong, know it was going to be hard and not worry about time
So it all started with running up Highland/Getchell/Stebner. Luckily, it's about 2 miles from my house, so I got some warmup before all the uphill started. Last time I ran up Highland, I needed to walk - not so this time! I just kept plugging my way up the hill. And up and up and up. By the time I hit Morris Thomas, I was trying to remember what it was like to not be running uphill. The weather wasn't too bad for the start but it got pretty hot by the end. I had Kyle meet me just after half way for a water re-fill and luckily, I threw my hat in the bag I had him bring so I nabbed that for the rest of the run and headed up Haines to Morris Thomas and on and on until Lavaque. Lavaque is an evil road! Evil! You just keep going up and up into Proctor. I had misread my elevation map, too, apparently, because I sure remember there NOT being any uphill on the St. Louis River road. Well. So much for that! But I kept plugging away and felt fine. Let me tell you, though, running DOWN Highland at mile 20 is crazy painful. Wow. I went faster once I came off the downhill then I was able to do going down.
The 3rd Boulderdash 5K was this Saturday! The weather was great again and I was hopeful for a three-peat. Maybe the third time would be a charm (I had two other races that I won twice and then had some speedster show up on my third go-around). I talked Lisa into coming with and we showed up nice and early only to find out that they changed the course on me! Sneaky race directors. So I headed out to do the course backwards as a warm-up. I've found that longer warm-ups are good for shorter races and I like to know where 800 from the finish is at. Hmmm, the course is much hillier than it used to be. Of course, it was pretty pancake flat for most of it, so a hill increase wasn't terrible.
I get back from my warm-up and . . . Connie is there! Hmmm, again. Well, she's in the middle of a long run so let's not call the race until we run. And we're off with the quacking of a duck call - one of my favorite race starts. If nothing else, I figured I should be able to run faster than last year, so I tried to take off from the start. Well much longer and up comes Connie, though I didn't recognize her breathing and stride at all until she said something. And away goes Connie. So much for my three-peat. Now wait a minute, I tell myself, just stay in contact and see what happens.
They mark the kilometers on this course and I'm starting to think that I really prefer that. Sure there's more of them, but they go by faster and they really worked well with my thinking this race. I was excited to catch up to Connie towards the end and then the goal was to bring it hard into the finish so it wouldn't end up being a sprint race in.
So - three-peat! Which kind of makes me sound like a high school boy's basketball team, but I'm okay with that :) I even ran a faster time than last year, even with the harder course. My buddy Mike got third in his age group and Lisa got second in hers behind Connie who won her age group and came second for women overall. The race was awesome, as always - one of my favorites of the year. This year's trophies were agates with a wood cut backing - very nice! It's a great event in a gorgeous setting that's definitely worth the drive. The shirts were nice again this year, too. A different gold/brown color with a running shoe made of boulders. I made sure to look at last year's shirt before ordering my size, too, so it fits me well this year. And now we come to taper time! Time to break out Marathon Woman for another read through.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
From NR: Firefighter's 10 Mile plus updates
Wow, guys - it's been a super long time! Sorry for the utter lack of updates. I've been crazy busy, I guess. Lots of racing going on and my computer time has been mostly devoted to other things and I've been doing well with keeping consistent lifting and swimming so that's more time taken up. I keep starting entries and then not finishing them - I've had the NMTC series every Wednesday plus a Sunday, Moose Lake 10K, TC One Mile and the Firefighter's 10 Mile in Thunder Bay. The best news is that running has been going great! My knee feels a-ok and I'm pulling out some speedy times. I've been smashing my times from last year in the NMTC series and my Moose Lake run was the fastest I've done since my PR 3 years ago.
The biggest news, though - I am runner number 9857 for Grandma's! I signed up last week after I nailed my 20 miler. I'm getting excited - 3 weeks left, which is crazy! I feel ready to go, though. This weekend (well, Monday, I guess, since I've been working all weekend but have Monday off) is my 22 and then it's the countdown!
My 20 was on fishing opener so the run was by myself on lovely dirt roads up at my cabin. Since it's rather empty out there, I opted for heading twice around the lake instead of an out and back. This way I'd be able to refill water on my own and Kyle and Dad could fish in the morning without worrying (much) about me being by myself. I kept 5 mile splits and was pleased to review them at the end and see each split get faster. It felt humid at the start and in the beginning my legs felt way too tired for being only 5 miles in, rather worrisome, actually, but I knew I could do 20 miles so I tried not to worry about it and kept plugging along. Along comes the second lap and what I wanted to do was focus on staying strong from about 13-18 since that's where I often have trouble. Turns out not only was I able to keep the pace up, but my last 5 miles had an 8:19 minute mile average which is close to race pace. In humidity! Excellent.
Hmmmm. Let's skip ahead to this Monday and the Firefighter's Ten Mile Road Race. It's up in Thunder Bay so we (I rode up with Leslie and Shelly) took off Sunday afternoon, getting up just in time to get our race packets and enjoy the very last of the spaghetti dinner. Mmmmmmmmmm. The race is on a Monday morning (Victoria Day!) and it was the 100th anniversary of the race this year (but only the 70 something running of it since it was canceled during World War II). It's an out and back course (with a little loop at the end of the out) that's pretty flat - the one hill was an overpass that we run up and down and then came back the other direction on. I like out and backs since it means you can see everyone which was doubly good in this case since it was a pretty boring route. The hill made from the overpass was nice, too, to break up the flatness and not nearly large or steep enough to be any big deal.
10 miles isn't that common of a racing distance, so it was hard to know what kind of time to shoot for. I decided that 7:30s sounded reasonable. The miles were marked but I didn't see a single one until mile 5. Not so helpful. They were all these sandwich board type signs that sat on the ground so I think they were being covered by the spectators. There were tons of people out cheering! I love a course with lots of cheering! But, yeah, no mile markers for me which meant I didn't really know how fast I was going. I knew the water stations were about every 2 miles but beyond that . . . So I decided not to worry about it and just go by feel. I took a look at my watch at 5 miles and saw 36 minutes which means I ran even splits! Funny because the second half felt SO much faster than the first half - I was sure I had gone out much too slow.
Also - apparently the issue with my shoelaces is me and not my shoes. BOTH of my shoes came untied. I don't understand what my problem is! Clearly when I run, my ankles move in such specific circles as to undo double knotting. Bizzare. So my first one comes undone about 2-3 miles in. Hmmmm. 7 or 8 miles is too far to run untied so I keep going until I see a bus bench, run over to that and tie my shoe. Not ten steps later, the other shoe is undone. Nargh. Get caught back up with the group I was with and then stop again to re-tie my other shoe. At least it gave me some motivation to pick my pace up more to catch up and then try and keep that pace going. I'll skip over the middle for you and jump to the last few miles. I passed by a girl and she put up a bit of a fight and then fell back. Well, it was awfully nice to have someone to run with so I gave her a wave and told her to "come on" and up she came. It was super nice to have someone to pace with for a couple miles, she really helped me keep my pace. It's maybe something I need to work on but sometimes I just need to blank out and hang onto someone or at least have someone to share the work with. I have to remember this come the end of Grandma's - if I can just keep on pace through the rough part and not think about having to hold a pace, I can come out the other end okay. So I eventually dropped my help and caught up with the group of 3 women in front of me with a good strong finish (despite the lying handmade 'one mile to go' sign in someone's yard). 1:12:17! So much for 7:30s - apparently I decided to run just faster than my 10K earlier in the year and do 7:13s instead. Very exciting! Also super exciting was Leslie winning the whole thing and the rest of the team having good races, too! It's so much fun when most everyone around you also does well. I came in 4th in my age group (so close to an award!) but 3rd place was a couple minutes in front of me, so I'm a-okay with 4th.
So, here we are. 3 weeks out and 22 miles to run! I decided to go for my 'evil' route - running up Highland and doing mileage around the mall and back - it's surprisingly rolling. I promise to update more often. Hopefully again this week.
The biggest news, though - I am runner number 9857 for Grandma's! I signed up last week after I nailed my 20 miler. I'm getting excited - 3 weeks left, which is crazy! I feel ready to go, though. This weekend (well, Monday, I guess, since I've been working all weekend but have Monday off) is my 22 and then it's the countdown!
My 20 was on fishing opener so the run was by myself on lovely dirt roads up at my cabin. Since it's rather empty out there, I opted for heading twice around the lake instead of an out and back. This way I'd be able to refill water on my own and Kyle and Dad could fish in the morning without worrying (much) about me being by myself. I kept 5 mile splits and was pleased to review them at the end and see each split get faster. It felt humid at the start and in the beginning my legs felt way too tired for being only 5 miles in, rather worrisome, actually, but I knew I could do 20 miles so I tried not to worry about it and kept plugging along. Along comes the second lap and what I wanted to do was focus on staying strong from about 13-18 since that's where I often have trouble. Turns out not only was I able to keep the pace up, but my last 5 miles had an 8:19 minute mile average which is close to race pace. In humidity! Excellent.
Hmmmm. Let's skip ahead to this Monday and the Firefighter's Ten Mile Road Race. It's up in Thunder Bay so we (I rode up with Leslie and Shelly) took off Sunday afternoon, getting up just in time to get our race packets and enjoy the very last of the spaghetti dinner. Mmmmmmmmmm. The race is on a Monday morning (Victoria Day!) and it was the 100th anniversary of the race this year (but only the 70 something running of it since it was canceled during World War II). It's an out and back course (with a little loop at the end of the out) that's pretty flat - the one hill was an overpass that we run up and down and then came back the other direction on. I like out and backs since it means you can see everyone which was doubly good in this case since it was a pretty boring route. The hill made from the overpass was nice, too, to break up the flatness and not nearly large or steep enough to be any big deal.
10 miles isn't that common of a racing distance, so it was hard to know what kind of time to shoot for. I decided that 7:30s sounded reasonable. The miles were marked but I didn't see a single one until mile 5. Not so helpful. They were all these sandwich board type signs that sat on the ground so I think they were being covered by the spectators. There were tons of people out cheering! I love a course with lots of cheering! But, yeah, no mile markers for me which meant I didn't really know how fast I was going. I knew the water stations were about every 2 miles but beyond that . . . So I decided not to worry about it and just go by feel. I took a look at my watch at 5 miles and saw 36 minutes which means I ran even splits! Funny because the second half felt SO much faster than the first half - I was sure I had gone out much too slow.
Also - apparently the issue with my shoelaces is me and not my shoes. BOTH of my shoes came untied. I don't understand what my problem is! Clearly when I run, my ankles move in such specific circles as to undo double knotting. Bizzare. So my first one comes undone about 2-3 miles in. Hmmmm. 7 or 8 miles is too far to run untied so I keep going until I see a bus bench, run over to that and tie my shoe. Not ten steps later, the other shoe is undone. Nargh. Get caught back up with the group I was with and then stop again to re-tie my other shoe. At least it gave me some motivation to pick my pace up more to catch up and then try and keep that pace going. I'll skip over the middle for you and jump to the last few miles. I passed by a girl and she put up a bit of a fight and then fell back. Well, it was awfully nice to have someone to run with so I gave her a wave and told her to "come on" and up she came. It was super nice to have someone to pace with for a couple miles, she really helped me keep my pace. It's maybe something I need to work on but sometimes I just need to blank out and hang onto someone or at least have someone to share the work with. I have to remember this come the end of Grandma's - if I can just keep on pace through the rough part and not think about having to hold a pace, I can come out the other end okay. So I eventually dropped my help and caught up with the group of 3 women in front of me with a good strong finish (despite the lying handmade 'one mile to go' sign in someone's yard). 1:12:17! So much for 7:30s - apparently I decided to run just faster than my 10K earlier in the year and do 7:13s instead. Very exciting! Also super exciting was Leslie winning the whole thing and the rest of the team having good races, too! It's so much fun when most everyone around you also does well. I came in 4th in my age group (so close to an award!) but 3rd place was a couple minutes in front of me, so I'm a-okay with 4th.
So, here we are. 3 weeks out and 22 miles to run! I decided to go for my 'evil' route - running up Highland and doing mileage around the mall and back - it's surprisingly rolling. I promise to update more often. Hopefully again this week.
Friday, April 30, 2010
From NR: Tragedy!
It's been a little while since I discovered my personal tragedy but I have yet to write about it. Here goes: my favorite running socks are no more!!
Okay, not such a catastrophe, but still sad! I've been buying my running socks from the Army Navy store in Grand Rapids the last couple of years. They're nice and lightweight, super cheap and the tops are sparkly (some yellow, some green) and say sunshine on them! I love them. Sadly, almost every single sock has a hole for my right big toe to poke out of now. So last time I went up to GR, I decided it was time to buy more just to head into the store and find that they no longer sell them. Not only that but the saleswoman had no idea what I was talking about so it's probably been a while since they've had them (I don't think I've bought any since last summer). I have no idea what brand they are and so have no way to look them up online, though I did try a few quick and useless searches using variants of 'running sock' 'sunshine' and 'glitter'. Shockingly, nothing came up! Yeah. I think they still sell the same brand but different socks, though, so I'll have to check NEXT time and write the brand down. In the meantime, I am running out of socks. The problem I've found with anklets is that so many tend to be just too short so that the back of the shoe rubs against my heel. Not comfortable. I found some cheap ones at Old Navy, though, so I'll give those a try and report back! They aren't sparkly, though.
The first trail race was on Wednesday! It was my first speedy anything since I've been injured so I was a bit apprehensive about it. Usually, this is the easiest course (well, I suppose Western Waterfront is an easier course) of the spring. However! It's been rather dry this year, so it was decided that we could venture onto parts of the trail usually too muddy this time of year. I shudder to think what they look like in a normal year. My mom asked if we ran through some puddles and I laughed at her. We were trouncing through Marsh Marigolds it was so mucky! The first third was wet, mucky and shoe sucking - I lost my right shoe in the first third during the warmup run of the course. Not a good sign. The second part was hills. Hills reminiscent of Brown's Point. Yuck. I didn't have as much of a problem with them as I thought I might, though. I tried to work on trusting my legs and ignoring my mind going something like "What the hell is that? You want to run up another one of those?" Then you turned a sharp right and hit sudden pavement which gets the legs all confused. "What?! Solid ground? What do I do?? How do I balance?"
I lost my left shoe in an unassuming mud hole in the single track. During the race. Luckily, we weren't more than a quarter mile from the finish and there was someone I could hear behind me so I decided to just keep going and go back for my shoe when I finished. I didn't even need to do that since Randy found it and brought it in with him. Thanks, Randy!
Overall, a pretty good race, though there's nothing to compare it to since it was a new course. I was trying hard to just run my pace and not let anyone else affect what I was doing so I could focus on what my legs wanted me to do. I ended up running faster than I thought I would, so that was nice. My legs are still strong (actually, probably stronger in general with all of that PT) but my breathing is perhaps a bit behind.
I'll be giving everything a good test tomorrow at the Moose Lake 10K, though (man, am I link happy today). Flat and fast so we'll see what happens. Hopefully the nasty weather that usually accompanies the Millennium Trail race doesn't show up in Moose Lake tomorrow. But if it does, I always love running in the rain, so it won't be so bad!
Okay, not such a catastrophe, but still sad! I've been buying my running socks from the Army Navy store in Grand Rapids the last couple of years. They're nice and lightweight, super cheap and the tops are sparkly (some yellow, some green) and say sunshine on them! I love them. Sadly, almost every single sock has a hole for my right big toe to poke out of now. So last time I went up to GR, I decided it was time to buy more just to head into the store and find that they no longer sell them. Not only that but the saleswoman had no idea what I was talking about so it's probably been a while since they've had them (I don't think I've bought any since last summer). I have no idea what brand they are and so have no way to look them up online, though I did try a few quick and useless searches using variants of 'running sock' 'sunshine' and 'glitter'. Shockingly, nothing came up! Yeah. I think they still sell the same brand but different socks, though, so I'll have to check NEXT time and write the brand down. In the meantime, I am running out of socks. The problem I've found with anklets is that so many tend to be just too short so that the back of the shoe rubs against my heel. Not comfortable. I found some cheap ones at Old Navy, though, so I'll give those a try and report back! They aren't sparkly, though.
The first trail race was on Wednesday! It was my first speedy anything since I've been injured so I was a bit apprehensive about it. Usually, this is the easiest course (well, I suppose Western Waterfront is an easier course) of the spring. However! It's been rather dry this year, so it was decided that we could venture onto parts of the trail usually too muddy this time of year. I shudder to think what they look like in a normal year. My mom asked if we ran through some puddles and I laughed at her. We were trouncing through Marsh Marigolds it was so mucky! The first third was wet, mucky and shoe sucking - I lost my right shoe in the first third during the warmup run of the course. Not a good sign. The second part was hills. Hills reminiscent of Brown's Point. Yuck. I didn't have as much of a problem with them as I thought I might, though. I tried to work on trusting my legs and ignoring my mind going something like "What the hell is that? You want to run up another one of those?" Then you turned a sharp right and hit sudden pavement which gets the legs all confused. "What?! Solid ground? What do I do?? How do I balance?"
I lost my left shoe in an unassuming mud hole in the single track. During the race. Luckily, we weren't more than a quarter mile from the finish and there was someone I could hear behind me so I decided to just keep going and go back for my shoe when I finished. I didn't even need to do that since Randy found it and brought it in with him. Thanks, Randy!
Overall, a pretty good race, though there's nothing to compare it to since it was a new course. I was trying hard to just run my pace and not let anyone else affect what I was doing so I could focus on what my legs wanted me to do. I ended up running faster than I thought I would, so that was nice. My legs are still strong (actually, probably stronger in general with all of that PT) but my breathing is perhaps a bit behind.
I'll be giving everything a good test tomorrow at the Moose Lake 10K, though (man, am I link happy today). Flat and fast so we'll see what happens. Hopefully the nasty weather that usually accompanies the Millennium Trail race doesn't show up in Moose Lake tomorrow. But if it does, I always love running in the rain, so it won't be so bad!
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